The Disappearances (32 page)

‘What was easy?’ Lucas asked stiffly.

‘The Horrors,’ Thomas replied. ‘All I had to do was light a few matches, and soon the forest fire had taken hold.’

‘Blowing up my estate, you mean?’ Benjamin asked, his voice choking with emotion. ‘Killing innocent people.’

Thomas shrugged. ‘That was a low point. A wasted effort,’ he said. ‘But it didn’t matter, not in the great scheme of things. You were just one of many, Devil. You know it’s very easy to assemble an army, if you know what it is that people want, if you know who they are, what their insecurities are, their hopes and fears. People are so easy to manipulate when you know everything about them. Pathetic really.’ He glanced over at Linus. ‘But that’s the point, isn’t it? Know people and you can do what you want with them, control the world!’

Linus smiled encouragingly at him. ‘So you started the Horrors,’ he said. ‘Then what?’

Thomas narrowed his eyes. ‘I’m not telling you everything, Linus. I’m not giving away all my secrets.’

‘Okay,’ Linus shrugged. ‘Fair enough. But how about the City? I’m guessing you were behind that, too?’

Thomas smiled broadly this time. ‘Oh, the City,’ he said, his eyes gleaming. ‘That was quite something. I wanted to approach you direct, of course, but I was nervous, in case you didn’t see things the way I did, in case you … changed your mind. So I watched and waited, made sure that you were okay, looked after, made sure you had what you needed, kept an eye on you. All the time, Linus, I was looking out for you. And then, soon after the Horrors had finished, I stumbled across Fisher. I was watching you, and you met with him. I quickly found out what he’d proposed, what the two of you were planning. And I made it happen! I made the City happen, Linus!’

He had the same childlike expression, and Evie suddenly realised why. He was looking for Linus’s approval. Looking for him to say ‘well done’.

‘But you didn’t build the City,’ Linus said carefully. ‘We did that.’

‘Oh, you did the manual work,’ Thomas shrugged. ‘But I did what it took behind the scenes. I spread the word, made it sound convincing, made Fisher sound like a guru instead of a nutcase. I made sure the City had water, food, everything it needed. Made sure it had generators. You ever wonder about the resources the City had?’

Linus shook his head.

‘No!’ Thomas said triumphantly. ‘Because you were too busy building your System, just like I knew you would. I created the perfect environment, Linus. I made the impossible possible.’

‘And then we turned off the System. And you started to panic. You sent your men into the City to restart it. Only they were discovered, weren’t they? By those young people. So you killed them. Every single one,’ Linus said, his voice suddenly very serious.

Thomas looked at him incredulously. ‘Of course!’ he said agitatedly. ‘We had to get it working again. And we couldn’t be disturbed, couldn’t have people asking questions. When the System was up and running no one asked any questions; no one ever went where they weren’t supposed to be. So we had to get rid of them.’ He smiled to himself. ‘Of course, the Brother was all for it. Thought he could use the Disappearances to stir up fear, to help overthrow Lucas. That last one, the one you escaped with?’ He looked at Lucas triumphantly. ‘The Brother used her disappearance as proof that you’re a murderer.’

Lucas’s face flushed with anger.

‘Not that it matters either way,’ Thomas shrugged then. ‘You led me to Linus in a roundabout way. That’s all I’ve ever been interested in. You’re remarkably elusive, Linus, when you want to be.’

‘Which is always,’ Linus said, a little smile playing on his lips.

Thomas turned to him, his eyes shining. ‘And there we have it. I’m a genius, you have to admit.’

‘A real genius,’ Linus nodded slowly.

‘So,’ Thomas said then, clapping his hands together. ‘Lovely though it’s been to catch up like this, you need to come with me now.’

‘And where is it that we’re going?’ Linus asked. ‘Your camp on the coast?’

Thomas raised an eyebrow. ‘Oh no, that place is being dismantled as we speak.’

‘And will it show up again on the map now?’

Thomas laughed. ‘I thought you’d like that. But really, you have no idea. No idea at all, Linus. You’ve got no idea what you’re in for. What I’m going to show you. You’re going to be amazed. Truly astounded.’

‘I bet,’ Linus said, quietly.

Benjamin turned to him. ‘You’re not really going, are you? We can overpower this freak. We can fight.’

‘No we can’t,’ Linus said flatly. ‘Not any more. He’s destroyed the Settlement. He’ll destroy the City. He’ll destroy everything. He looked at Thomas. ‘But if I come with you, everyone else goes free. You leave them alone. Leave it all alone. Do you understand?’

Thomas looked at him for a moment, then he shrugged. ‘Whatever you say.’

‘And I need my computers,’ Linus said, looking around. ‘I’ll need them all.’

Thomas smiled. ‘Of course. My men will bring them all.’

Linus nodded, stood up, walked towards his computer. ‘I’ll just get it all ready,’ he said, beginning to unplug machines, fold up laptops. As he did so, Evie noticed him take something out of the side of one of them; he glanced over at her then, and as he walked around to disconnect another machine, he dropped it just next to Lucas’s hand. He immediately moved his hand to cover it, manoeuvred it into his pocket without Thomas seeing.

Thomas turned to Benjamin. ‘Wish you were still working for me, Devil?’ he asked, his eyes glinting.

Benjamin didn’t answer; he just stared straight ahead.

‘No,’ Thomas said thoughtfully. ‘No, well, I suppose we can’t all be visionaries.’ He stood up. ‘Okay, I’m done,’ he said, looking at Linus. ‘Let’s go.

Linus got to his feet. ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘But let me say goodbye to my friends.’

Thomas pulled a face. ‘You know what?’ he said. ‘I don’t think that’s actually going to be possible to leave them here after all. I’ve developed a real hatred of loose ends. We will all get onto the chopper and your friends will … Well, we’ll think of something. Something painless.’

‘You said I could leave with Evie,’ Raffy stared at him angrily.

Thomas shrugged. ‘I lied.’

Linus’s eyes hardened. ‘You want me, you leave everyone else. That’s the deal.’

‘How about you cooperate or I’ll kill them all. That’s a better deal, I think,’ Thomas said smoothly as Benjamin’s grip tightened around Raffy, this time to stop him hurling himself at Thomas.

Linus held his gaze for a few seconds. ‘Seems you’ve got me,’ he said eventually.

‘Yes,’ Thomas smiled. ‘Yes, I have. So, shall we go?’

Linus nodded heavily and started to walk, but as he brushed past Lucas he whispered something, so quietly no one noticed except for Evie, who was right behind him.

She saw his hand reach back and she took it; as he pulled her towards him he murmured in her ear, ‘At the drop, we turn left, not right.’ And she didn’t know exactly what he meant, but she nodded earnestly, pretending to stumble so that Benjamin would help her up and she could convey the same message to him.

They walked, Linus at the front, then Lucas, Evie, Benjamin, Thomas, and Raffy at the back. And then they were at the cave’s exit. Linus turned right. Lucas turned left and immediately disappeared. Evie followed him but before she could take another step she felt a hand gripping her. ‘No. No!’ It was Raffy, leaping forward to grab her; she pushed at him, screamed for him to let go, but it was too late. Thomas was beside her, his face white with rage.

‘Get up here,’ he shouted to his men, who were now visible at the mouth of the cave. ‘Get up here and get these prisoners onto the chopper.’

‘No,’ Evie cried out as several armed men descended and started to drag them out. ‘Where’s Lucas? Where is he?’

‘He’s safe,’ Linus called out to her, the noise from the helicopter almost drowning him out, his arm reaching out to her as he was bundled towards the strange, scary flying machine, as Evie herself was pulled towards it. ‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Evie …’

Lucas took a deep breath and surveyed the woman sitting opposite him. Amy Jenkins. She was the first person to get an interview with him after he’d returned to the City, broken, battered, but knowing that with Clara at his side, he had to appear strong, had to appear to be triumphant. Martha had wanted to keep him at Base Camp for a few days, to nurse him back to health, but he’d refused. Having run all the way there from Linus’s cave, he had eaten just one meal before setting off again, with Clara, to return to the City.

It was a triumphant return; after a brief spell in prison, accused of murder and worse, Clara’s testimony had led to his release, then Linus’s recording of everything Thomas had said about the City, about the Brother, had led to the Brother’s own incarceration; when the memory stick Linus had dropped next to him was played in the Meeting House to a stunned silence, all of Lucas’s former doubters had sobbed in regret.

Of course, they only saw part of the recording, the part that Angel had edited for him; Lucas didn’t want to take all hope away from the City’s people, didn’t want them to be filled with anger like he was.

Amy was smiling at him. His last interview with her felt like so long ago. A lifetime ago.

Now things were very different.

No more search parties were roaming the streets of the City; instead, crowds were gathered outside his offices, braying for the Brother’s blood. Now he was met only by humble, apologetic faces, by men and women asking to shake his hand. Now, finally, people were beginning to embrace their freedoms, beginning to finally shake themselves free of the Brother’s doctrines, of his grip on their minds and hearts.

And Lucas tried to be happy for them, tried to feel pleasure in the fact that he had finally achieved what he’d set out to do. But instead he was battling a constant fog of nihilism. Because the City had not been created from the ashes, but through design. Because it was not a beacon of survival, but the creation of a madman, a game, a project.

And because Evie was with that madman, away from Lucas, a lifetime away.

‘None of us believed you,’ Amy said. ‘And yet now we realise just how wrong we were to doubt you.’

Lucas nodded, trying hard to focus, trying to push everything else out, for now at least.

‘What you have to remember,’ he said, his right hand moving inadvertently to his left wrist, ‘is that the System enslaved us. Its judgements were arbitrary, controlled by the Brother to keep people fearful, to separate them, to reward his friends and punish his enemies. It was corrupt. Just as the Brother was corrupt. He is responsible for what happened, for manipulating the people of the City to believe him and not me. No one should blame themselves. We need to look forwards, not backwards. We have to start living. I want us to start living again.’

He said the words, but he wasn’t sure how he kept a straight face. He knew nothing of living. Not any more. Not since Thomas had taken Evie, not since he’d turned left at the cave’s exit to find himself spinning down a tunnel to the ground below, unable to turn back, unable to respond to Evie’s cries. He had tried scrabbling up; had shouted, screamed, ripped his hands to shreds trying to get to her, to all of them, but it had been no use. He’d had to watch as she was taken away, taken off in the helicopter with Linus, Raffy and Benjamin. Taken to a world that was meant to have been blown up. Taken to a world that Lucas still couldn’t comprehend, no matter how hard he tried.

Had Linus known that he alone would make it? He didn’t know, but he had his suspicions. Suspicions that kept him awake at night, that filled his head with feverish thoughts, questions. Was that why Linus had given Lucas the memory stick, the recording of Thomas revealing everything to them: his involvement in the Disappearances, the Horrors; the Brother’s treachery? Was that why Linus had made sure that Lucas was right behind him? He didn’t know; all he knew was that he was empty inside, that he would remain empty until he saw her again.

‘So what,’ Amy said, her eyes narrowing, ‘would you suggest as a suitable punishment for the Brother? People are calling for his death; after all, he enabled the brutal murder of the Disappeared.’

Lucas closed his eyes for a few seconds, then opened them again, stood up and walked to the window, large and broad. He had considered a new office, a new building, a new start. But in the end he had settled for a new window. A large window that allowed him to see the sky.

‘I think we can find a suitable punishment,’ he said quietly. ‘I intend to gather a jury of citizens, men and women of this City, to determine whether he be imprisoned within the City or exiled from it. The people will decide. It was the people that he betrayed, after all.’

‘And what else do you have in store for the City?’ Amy asked then.

Lucas thought for a moment, then turned around to look at her. She had no idea that this was all a sham, just like everyone else in this country had no idea that they’d been duped, used, their lives destroyed. And all for a computer system.

‘Peace,’ he said eventually. Because they didn’t need to know. Not yet, anyway. Not when they’d already suffered so much. ‘Peace and prosperity for the City’s people. Hard work. Resilience. Humour. Fun. Love. I want people to be free to enjoy the small things, the big things, free to talk, free to disagree with each other, with me; free to take pleasure in the world again. I want to lower our walls, to engage with the other communities around us. I want us to stop being afraid.’

Amy scribbled furiously, then she looked up at Lucas, cocked her head to one side. ‘And you?’ she asked. ‘Will you find peace, do you think? After everything that’s happened?’

Lucas looked at her and his eyes were drawn to his desk, behind her. Over on his computer he could see a message flashing up for him, a message that could only be from one person, a message that reminded him of the years he spent sending and receiving messages to and from Linus, not knowing who he was or where he lived, just that his father trusted him and that he must, too. Now they were using the same device to communicate again; no words yet, just a signal, to let Lucas know that they were alive, that things were okay. Five seconds later, it disappeared to be replaced by his screensaver, a picture of Clara celebrating her sixteenth birthday two weeks before, her parents’ faces radiant, their loved one returned. To remind him that his fight had been worthwhile, for her family at least. To remind himself that people came back. That Evie would come back. That he would find her again, one day …