The Fearless (10 page)

‘It – it happened so fast,’ Patroller Yuen says. ‘We heard screams from the Shudders, then someone running – Mike shouted, and there was a shot. By the time we got here . . .’

She indicates the body on the ground, her face drained of colour.

Captain Denning opens his mouth, then closes it again.

‘Who fired their gun?’ he says at last.

The Patrollers around him shake their heads.

‘It was a Fearless,’ I say. My voice is hoarse from screaming. ‘He was in the Shudders. There were two of them – a man and a girl. The man had a gun, and he’s taken Jori.’

Captain Denning stares at me. ‘
What?
’

Shaking, I tell him a version of what happened, leaving out the bit about going to look for Myo’s bag.

‘But what were you
doing
there? And whose bag is that?’

I pull the bag round behind my back. ‘Does that even matter? There was a Fearless!
He took my brother!
’ In my head, I can see the Fearless swimming back to the mainland through the black, icy water, and Jori, terrified, choking, frozen . . . ‘Please! You have to go after them. You have to get Jori back!’

Captain Denning doesn’t answer me. The people around us are muttering to one another, their expressions frightened and shocked.

‘It was that boy,’ Sheena Drake says suddenly. ‘I bet he had the Fearless with him. They all helped each other get over here.’

My mind whirls. Is that what happened? Did Myo bring the Fearless with him?

No, that’s insane
, I tell myself.
How could he? And why would he? After all, he’s not Fearless himself.

‘Forget about Myo!’ I cry, knowing that with every minute – every
second
– that passes, my brother is getting further away. ‘He’s got nothing to do with them!’ But no one’s listening, except Sol, who turns and frowns at me.

‘Who’s Myo?’ he says.

I grab his arm. ‘Sol, the Fearless took Jori! The Patrol have to go after them!’

Sol seems to be about to reply when Captain Denning says, ‘Patroller Greene, Patroller Zadac, take Patroller Cary to the Infirmary. Patroller Yuen, escort everyone back to the apartments, find every Patroller who isn’t here yet and make sure we have sufficient people on watch. Then we need to search the rest of the island and make sure there aren’t any other Fearless here. I’ll go and warn the Mayor. And I will deal with you later, young lady,’ he adds, glaring at me.

‘Wait!’ I say. ‘What about Jori?’

‘Sorry, there’s nothing I can do.’ Captain Denning turns away.

‘
NO!
’ I scream. I start to run after him but Sol catches hold of me, pulling me back. ‘Cass, stop it!’

‘Let
go
of me!’ I try to wriggle out of his grip, but he tightens his fingers around my arm until my fingers start to tingle. I stare at him. ‘Sol, don’t you get it?
The Fearless took Jori!
If we don’t get him back, he’ll be Altered!’

‘And what do you want the Patrol to do? Take a boat out in the middle of the night, go over to the docks and put themselves in even more danger? Cass, you know the rule.’

The rule
. Just one of many drawn up by Sol’s dad and the Patrol after everyone first came to Hope. The rule that says anyone taken by a Fearless who doesn’t return of their own accord, unAltered, will be considered lost, because the safety of the Islanders is paramount and the limited resources of the Patrol are considered too precious to be used for anything other than defending the island.

Which means no one’s going after my brother. He’s as good as dead – or Altered – already.

I want to collapse against Sol and wail. But that isn’t going to get Jori back.
Nothing’s
going to get Jori back, unless I go after him myself. But how can I do that? How will I get off the island?

The people around me start to disperse as Patroller Yuen ushers them back towards the apartment blocks.

‘Captain Denning wants all the Junior Patrol who are about to graduate to take part in the search,’ Rob tells Sol. ‘Apart from Cass, obviously.’

‘OK.’ Sol lets go of my arm. ‘Cass, you need to go inside.’

I shake my head. I can’t move. Can’t even speak. Grief is building inside me like a storm, vast and dark and roaring.

‘
Cass
. Go back to your apartment. It’s not safe out here.’

‘Please, Sol,’ I whisper. ‘Help me get him back.’ For a second, I think about telling him that if he helps me, I’ll go out with him.

His face hardens. ‘Go
inside
, Cass.’

I watch him and Rob walk off.

My brother is gone.

The only family I have left, and he’s gone.

Even now, part of my mind refuses to accept this.
Any moment now
, I tell myself,
he’s going to come running over, grinning all over his face at the joke he’s played on everyone
.

But he doesn’t.

My eyes burn, but no tears spill over. Instead of returning to the apartment, I head to the Meeting Hall. Mr Brightman will help me. He has to. My dad was a close friend of his. He helped deliver Jori in the boat on our way over here.

On the way, I bump into Marissa, who’s got a gun and a lantern, her expression grim. ‘Cass, where are you going?’ she says gently. Someone must have told her about Jori. ‘You should get back to your apartment – as soon as the search has finished I’ll come and find you.’

I grab her arm. ‘Mar, you have to help me get him back!’

‘What? No, we
can’t
.’ She glances round nervously. ‘We’d have to steal a boat. And take a gun. And even if we do make it back, once the Patrol realize what we’ve done they’ll kick us off Hope for ever. I’m really sorry, Cass.’

From across the island, I hear a long whistle – the signal from the Patrol that the search is about to start. ‘Just hang in there, OK?’ Marissa says, her voice cracking on the last word.

I stumble away from her. When I get to the Meeting Hall, Captain Denning is just leaving. I wait in the shadows until he’s gone, then run up the steps. Mr Brightman – I can’t think of him as
Mayor
Brightman, no matter how hard I try – spends most of his time in his office; even now I can see a line of flickering light under the door. I knock. ‘Come in,’ he calls.

When he sees me, he looks surprised. ‘Cass. You should be at home. It’s not safe.’

‘You have to help me get Jori back!’ I say. ‘
Please!
He’s my
brother
, we can’t let the Fearless take him!’

I know I sound almost hysterical, but I don’t care.

Sol’s dad shakes his head. ‘I’m sorry, Cass. I can’t spare my men to go on a wild goose chase over to the mainland. You know that. I’m truly sorry about Jori. But those are the rules.’

I stare at him for a moment. Then I turn and run out of his office.

Outside, I walk blindly, not knowing where I’m going and not caring. I don’t realize I’m near the cells until I hear someone hiss, ‘Cass.’

I stop. The moon shines on Myo, standing at the front of his cell. ‘Oh, God, I thought you weren’t coming,’ he says, and I remember his bag, which is still slung across my shoulder.

No one’s guarding him; Captain Denning must have decided that getting the Patrol to search the island was more important. I go over and shove the bag through the bars. He snatches it from me and pulls out the padded jacket, shivering and hissing in pain as he pulls it on.

‘Hey, what just happened?’ he says as I start to walk off. ‘I heard a gunshot, and someone screaming . . .’

I turn back. ‘There were two Fearless in the Shudders. They killed one of the Patrol and took my little brother.’

Myo’s eyes widen. ‘
What?
’

‘Were they with you?’

‘No! No way!’

‘You sure?’

Myo shakes his head. ‘I swear, I had no idea.’

‘They must have followed you here, then.’ I swallow hard against the ache in my throat. ‘The man shot Patroller Cary so he could escape with Jori.’

‘The man?’

‘There was a man, and a girl.’

‘Why didn’t anyone go after them?’

‘It’s a law we have here. If anyone’s taken or Altered, they’re lost. There aren’t enough of us, or enough weapons, to go after people.’

‘That’s crazy,’ Myo says.

If it had been anyone but Jori who’d been taken, I’d tell him he was wrong. I’d have argued that the survival of the Islanders was more important than the life of a single person, repeating the words we’ve had drilled into us for as long as we can remember.

But it’s my brother who’s gone.

My brother who the Patrol are refusing to help.

I close my eyes, leaning my forehead against the cold metal bars of the cell gate.

‘What’re you gonna do?’ Myo says softly.

‘Go after him,’ I say. ‘I have to. Even if he’s dead, I want to get him back.’

‘Take me with you.’

I open my eyes. ‘Eh?’

‘I need to get out of here and back to the mainland. If
you
were thinking those Fearless were with me, the rest of your lot are gonna string me up. If we go now we might be able to catch up with the Fearless and get your brother back. I know where they’re taking him.’

My stomach lurches. ‘What do you mean?’

‘I’ve heard about this place from the barterers, where they say the Fearless are bringing people to
alter
them,’ he says. ‘They reckon the Fearless are trying to get their numbers up again.’

I hold my breath, aghast, and hardly daring to believe that the answer to my predicament might be right here, in front of me, with this boy I don’t even know.

‘Can you get us off this island?’ Myo says.

‘I don’t know.’ My mind is whirling as I try to work out how I can get us to the jetty and onto a boat, unseen. ‘I – I can try. But I’ll need to get some stuff – water and food—’

‘How long will it take you?’

‘Ten minutes.’

‘Go. I’ll get this lock open.’

I don’t need telling twice. I turn, and run back in the direction of the apartments.

I work frantically at the lock with my knife. My ribs are killing me and I’m terrified Cass won’t make it back, or someone – one of those guards – will turn up first. Why did I promise her I’d help her find her brother? I must be crazy. Either we’ll catch up with Mara, which will be a disaster, or I’ll have to take her all the way back to the bunker to get weapons and supplies. It’s not gonna work.

But I have to get off this island. Next time someone tries to take my eyepatch off, I might not be able to stop them. Once we’re on the mainland, and we’re on Mara’s trail, I’ll have to find a way of ditching Cass. I feel like a total bastard just thinking about it, but what choice do I have?

When she comes back, she’s wearing a pack and a pair of sturdy boots instead of the pumps she had on before. I give her a thumbs-up and start to push the gate open, but she holds up her hand. She takes a bottle of lamp oil out of her pack and tips a bit onto the gate hinges so it opens without making a sound.

‘Good thinking,’ I whisper as I limp out and snap the lock closed again. I have my satchel across my chest, even though it makes my ribs hurts like hell. ‘How are we gonna do this?’

She tells me her plan for getting off the island. ‘Are you OK?’ she adds as I take a couple more steps, hissing in pain.

‘Don’t worry about me,’ I say. ‘I’ve had worse. We’re heading for the jetty, right?’ I don’t want her to know that I’m wondering how on earth I’ll make it that far.

She nods. ‘Follow me. And be
quiet
.’

We creep along, keeping to the shadows. When we’re almost at the sea wall, Cass drops into a crouch. I crouch too, breathing fast. The pain’s making me feel sick. My ribs are broken for sure.

‘That’s where they put ladders over to get down to the boats moored on the other side,’ Cass whispers in my ear, pointing, and I see one of those guards standing on top of the wall with a lantern by her feet. We watch her for a moment. Cass eases the pack off her shoulders and gives it to me.

It’s heavy. ‘What’s in here?’ I ask.

‘Food, water and clothes. I’ve got a knife tucked in my boot, too.’

I feel relieved. At least she’ll be able to look after herself.

She runs across to the wall.

‘Patroller Yuen!’ I hear her gasp. ‘That boy has escaped from the cells!’

‘What?’ she says. ‘Cass? Is that you?’

‘I was in my apartment! He came in, threatened me with a knife and made me give him all my food! I managed to get away but I think he’s still in the building somewhere!’

The soldier swears, grabs her lantern and gives a shrill whistle. ‘Cass, you need to go and find Captain Denning,’ she says. ‘I think he’s on the south wall.’

‘Come
on
,’ Cass hisses as soon as the soldier’s run off.

I throw her the pack, clenching my teeth as fresh pain stabs through my side.

‘Keep low so the rest of the Patrol don’t see our silhouettes or shadows,’ she whispers as we clamber up onto the wall. Ten feet below us are a group of wooden rowing boats with oars in the bottom, and next to me is a rolled-up rope ladder secured to a pair of metal hooks. Cass gives it a shove and it unrolls. ‘
Go!
’ she hisses. I climb down as fast as I can and drop into the nearest boat, biting back a cry of pain. A few moments later she lands beside me. ‘Untie the boat,’ she says, grabbing the oars. I lean over, untie the mooring rope and push the boat off against the wall before collapsing back with a groan.

Cass picks up the oars. ‘Wait!’ I hiss, sitting up again. ‘Let me row to start with. If they see you, they’ll know you helped me.’

‘They’ll know anyway. I left a note,’ she hisses back.

‘You what?’

She gazes at me for a moment. I lean forward and snatch the oars from her hands.

The pain is awful; it takes everything I’ve got to pull the oars through the water and steer away from the jetty. Soon, the shouts start. I see lanterns above the wall. There’s a shot, and a bullet whizzes past my ear, another grazing the boat’s prow. ‘
Shit!
’ Cass says, ducking her head. I pull harder at the oars and manage to put on one last burst of speed.