The Fall
The Fall
Claire Merle
Contents
Title Page
Dedication
1: Inside the Wall
2: The Council
3: Reconciled
4: The Disc
5: Wooden Star
6: Gone
7: Safety
8: The Wetlands
9: Trust
10: Suspicion
11: Surrounded
12: Face Gels
13: Stitch
14: Gatekeeper
15: Countdown
16: Trent
17: The Pulse
18: Home
19: Evelyn Knight
20: Getaway
21: Tengeri
22: Knowledge
23: Morgue
24: Tabitha
25: Inside Attack
26: Infiltration
27: Novastra
28: Headquarters
29: Stone Children
30: Volunteers
31: Chaos
32: Endings and Beginnings
: Epilogue
: Acknowledgements
About the Author
By the Same Author
Inserted Copyright
For Claude, Sean and West
Ana crouched in a thicket near the Project’s ten-foot-high wall. Her head swam in the heat and pain shot through her bent legs, but she didn’t move. Beyond the bracken a path cut through the woods. Far on the other side of the paved track, a figure bellied through the undergrowth. For the last fifteen minutes she’d caught glimpses of him when his knife flashed in the sunlight.
She’d done it. She’d escaped Jasper’s home, run eight minutes through the Community without encountering a soul, climbed the metal spiked wall, and now, finally, she was inside the Project – a place, it was said, where those who entered were never seen again; home to the brainwashing sect Cole had joined when he was ten.
Cole.
His name fluttered deep in the pit of her stomach. She was breaking her promise to her father by looking for him. She was betraying her husband. It turned out she wasn’t as practical and level-headed as her father had trained her to be. Meeting Cole had made her yearn for the truth, for the feeling of life pumping through her veins.
Over on the path, a rabbit took an oblivious hop in her direction. It stopped, nose twitching as it caught a scent on the breeze: the smell of bluebells. Violet heads bobbed, deceptively welcoming.
Kneading her calf muscles, Ana knew she would have to make a decision. If the rabbit continued towards her, she wouldn’t remain invisible to the hunter for much longer. Soon his line of sight would be level with her and no matter how still she crouched in the bracken, he would notice the flecks of bright, unnatural whiteness glowing through the shield of leaves. The dressing gown she’d escaped in was a beacon in the forest.
She tossed a stone. It struck the ground between her hiding place and the rabbit. The creature jumped around and bounded away down the path.
Perfect
. She clenched her fists, pleased and tense. Now the hunter would lead her back to their camp and she could begin her search for Cole.
Branches crackled. A teenage boy emerged from the bushes, swatting dirt from green combat trousers and a dark T-shirt. His profile revealed a narrow face with scraggly hair down to his shoulders. The knife in his palm glinted as he swivelled it around and around.
‘What d’you do?’ he called out.
Fear stabbed Ana. The hunter was with someone. She scanned the thigh-high grass beyond the path. Directly in her line of sight, a shoulder poked out from behind a shrub and a second boy got to his knees. Sixteen, she guessed. Younger than the first. He stood, revealing arrows in a criss-cross sling on his back. He also wore a black T-shirt and combat trousers. A uniform? But if he’d been hunting the rabbit, why hadn’t he taken a shot?
‘I didn’t
do
anything,’ the younger boy said. ‘Something came flying out of nowhere.’
‘Nowhere,’ the hunter answered, ‘is a metaphysical improbability.’ He put the hilt of his knife between his teeth and unclipped a dark baton from his belt. As he strode up the slope towards his companion, he flicked his wrist and the metal pole extended on either end forming a weapon.
Ana glanced down at her swimsuit and the slip-on pumps she’d taken from Jasper’s mother. Her outfit had been chosen with two objectives: avoid arousing suspicion about where she was going; and avoid clothes which her father might have planted with tracers. She should have given more thought to what might happen during a half-naked encounter with the sect’s warped followers.
‘We should be getting back to our post,’ the younger boy said.
The hunter sheathed his knife. ‘Flying objects come from somewhere.’ He slunk towards the path, scanning the woods near the high brick wall. Any moment now he would see her.
Ana tugged the hem of her dressing gown from the brambles and stood with as much dignity as she could muster. Cole was proof that not all of the Project’s followers were depraved or dangerous. She couldn’t fear the sect, not if she wanted to be with him.
Straightening her shoulders, and swallowing hard, she stepped out from the bracken.
The hunter stopped at the edge of the path. His companion froze behind him.
‘I . . . I’m a . . . friend of . . . Cole Winter,’ she stuttered, her words barely audible above the blood hammering in her ears.
Neither of the boys moved. Their shock vibrated in the air. The astonishment on their faces turned the flutters in Ana’s stomach to nervous spasms. She took a step towards them.
‘Don’t move,’ the hunter said. Behind him, the second boy drew an arrow from the quiver on his back and slipped it into his bow.
‘I’m not armed.’ Her voice trembled. A drop of sweat seeped into the wisps of hair at the side of her face.
‘Show us.’
The hunter meant her to take off her dressing gown. She shuddered. Meeting Cole in the Project had been her idea. The night her father caught them stealing the minister’s disc there hadn’t been time to make proper plans. She’d told him she would find him. Perhaps if they weren’t being ripped away from each other, he would have warned her not to come.
‘Show us,’ the hunter repeated. He stared at her, the baton tight in his clenched fist.
She fumbled with the knot in the belt of her dressing gown.
The boy with the arrow shook his head. ‘Blaize—’
‘Quiet!’
Her throat tightened and her cheeks burnt with humiliation. Raising her chin, she opened the dressing gown. It slipped down her shoulders.
The hunter stalked through the grass, closing the gap between them. The boy with the bow and arrow followed nervously.
Ana folded her arms over her swimsuit. Her legs trembled, but she refused to crumble under his intimidation. He was her age, skinny, and his friend wanted no part in this. Her odds were good. She met his gaze defiantly. ‘Satisfied?’
A smile slipped up the edge of his mouth. ‘Hardly.’ He bit his bottom lip and sucked in his breath. His eyes roamed her chest and down to her legs.
She yanked up her dressing gown.
The hunter turned to his companion. ‘I think she likes me.’
‘She looks like she’s gonna chuck-up.’
Ana’s eyes flicked across to the boy with the arrow aimed at her heart. She needed to keep him on side. ‘Do you know Cole Winter?’ she asked him.
‘Are you trying to tell us,’ the hunter cut in, ‘that you know where you are?’
She met his gaze. Did they think she’d lost her senses? That she’d arrived there accidentally from some mental rehab home?
‘I’m in the Enlightenment Project. I came over the wall.’
The boy with the arrow paled. His bow drooped like the wilting bluebells at his feet. Even the hunter looked surprised.
‘Blaize!’ the boy said.
‘What?’
‘Her necklace.’
Ana’s skin prickled at the awe in his voice. The necklace was a joining present from Jasper’s parents. A platinum moon with a diamond on the top corner. Along with her joining ring, it was the only personal item she had brought with her.
The hunter took a step closer. As he examined the moon, she saw a small scar lining the cheek beneath his left eye. His skin was ruddy from days spent outside. A strange expression fell across his face. He tucked back a strand of shaggy hair.
‘Call them,’ he said.
The boy with the bow fumbled to raise the whistle around his neck. He blew it hard. A high-pitched shriek filled the air.
‘Call who?’ she whispered, terror pooling in her chest. In the distance, a flock of birds shot up from the trees, followed by the sounds of feet running and branches snapping. Two men in green combat trousers and dark T-shirts appeared, leaping through the undergrowth, arrows strung in their bows. Seeing their group, they halted. The blonde one swivelled left and right, weapon raised as he scanned the forest. The dark-haired one moved forwards, bow raised, ready to shoot.
‘Is she alone?’ he shouted.
‘We haven’t seen anyone else,’ the hunter called back.
‘You all right Mikey?’ the advancing man asked.
‘Yeah,’ the younger boy said over his shoulder. As the man with the dark hair came closer, Ana saw he resembled the younger boy. They had the same large brown eyes and high forehead. But there could only be ten years between them. Brothers, she decided. ‘She came over the wall,’ Mikey said. ‘She’s wearing the necklace.’
‘And a swimsuit,’ the hunter added with a sneer.
Now only ten feet away, the dark-haired man looked at Ana properly for the first time. His eyes explored her face, dropping to her neck. Did he recognise her?
‘Go and make sure everyone on the watch knows,’ he said to the boy. ‘Tell them we’re on high alert.’
Mikey nodded. ‘Is it starting?’ he asked.
‘I don’t know.’ The dark-haired man placed a hand on his brother’s shoulder. ‘I’ll see you back at the camp. Watch your back.’
As Mikey left, the hunter’s arm spun out and suddenly ripped away the belt tying Ana’s dressing gown. She jerked backwards. Her breathing grew shallow. No longer held with anything, her robe fell open.
The hunter laughed. ‘She came in a swimsuit!’
The dark-haired man’s gaze grew stony. ‘Do something useful, Blaize,’ he said. ‘Use the belt to blindfold her.’
*
With the dressing-gown belt covering her eyes and tied firmly around the back of her head, Ana stumbled across uneven woodland. One of the men held her by the elbow, catching her when she tripped. No one spoke as they descended a steep hill. The only sounds were bird song and the swish of grass against their legs. They moved swiftly.
She was dehydrated. Her head pounded with the heat and weeks of sleepless nights. She had to stay calm. Cole would explain everything to the guards. He would stop them from hurting her. But deep down another thought crept into her mind, stirring up doubt. On the eve of her joining to Jasper Taurell, when she’d broken into her father’s office searching for evidence against the Pure test, she’d discovered a secret recording made by the ex-Secretary of State for Health. She’d given the disc to Cole in a wooden star pendant. If Cole had made it back to the Project, if her father had kept his word and allowed him and his sister Lila to go free, what had happened to the minister’s recording? It should have made headline news weeks ago.