The Disappearances

by Gemma Malley

  Benjamin nodded uncomfortably. They were all alive. But for how long? Where was he leading everyone, anyway? Who was he to decide he was their leader, the person who made all the decisions? Sometimes he heard people talking about him as though he was some kind of deity, some kind of saviour sent from heaven. But he knew what he really was. He knew he was nothing like a God.

  Then again, it wasn’t like God had ever done much for people. The Old Testament God had been more interested in brutality, killing and maiming like a warlord. Then he sent his son to preach on his behalf and allowed him to be tortured and murdered. Perhaps his son had displeased him, Benjamin found himself thinking. Perhaps he had been unhappy with his son’s interpretation of his message. Because Jesus talked not of punishment, but of forgiveness, of patience, of living a simple, good life, of being tolerant of others, when it was abundantly clear that his father was not tolerant at all. His father did not forgive; he was a man of rage, hell-bent on absolute power, demanding total loyalty and submission from his followers. Sure, the Bible made out that God sacrificed his son to save the world, but that never really rung true for Benjamin. Jesus just didn’t seem to be talking from the same script as his old man. Maybe he got carried away. Maybe his dad hadn’t banked on him having a mind of his own. Benjamin allowed himself a little smile, imagining Jesus as the son of a dictator, trying to modernise the regime, trying to make it appear more people-friendly, more acceptable when his father hadn’t been interested in changing the status quo. Perhaps it was for this, not to save anyone, that Jesus paid the ultimate price.

  ‘It may not be a bad thing, angering the City,’ Stern said suddenly. ‘Maybe now we can tell our people the truth. Now that we’ve stood up to them.’

  Benjamin turned, startled. He had thought that Stern wanted what he wanted; that appeasing the Informers was better than more bloodshed. ‘You’ve wanted me to stand up to them before? Even though it puts our lives in danger?’

  Stern didn’t stop walking. ‘A life lived on its own terms is generally better, even if it’s shorter than one lived in subjugation.’

  ‘But no one knew that we lived in subjugation,’ Benjamin said.

  ‘I did,’ Stern said simply.

  Benjamin nodded and felt his shoulders grow heavier. He had wanted his township to be a proud place, one of quiet dignity. The Informers had taken that from him. And he had taken it from Stern.

  He walked, and took a deep breath, deciding that Stern was right, that this was a new beginning, a chance to start again. They didn’t need much to live well. Air to breathe, food to nourish them, clothes and shelter to protect them, a friendly face, a hug …

  ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘But Stern, you must know. These men are not from the City. They act on its behalf, they collect food for it, but they are not the same. They have their own agenda. And crossing them is dangerous. You must be prepared.’

  ‘I’m always prepared,’ Stern said with a shrug.

  Everyone was carrying a bag, but just one, and not a large one. People could travel lightly when they needed to, and yet so often they tried to do the opposite. Benjamin still remembered the days of plenty, of greed, of material things piling up in every room, every cupboard, infecting their owners, polluting the land. So many things, and yet everyone was always in a hurry to buy more. Like an addiction, he thought to himself. As though things could fill the void, as though they somehow provided the answer.

  It seemed a lifetime ago. A time when everyone considered themselves invincible, just as he had done. No one could know what was to come; no one could predict the Horrors.

  Except for one person.

  He stopped walking, as the familiar nausea washed over him, the nausea that always accompanied that thought, that knowledge. Then he frowned, turned to Stern. ‘Can you hear something?’

  Stern shook his head. ‘Hear what?’ he asked.

  Benjamin put his hand on Stern’s arm, concentrated. Was he imagining it? Of course he was.

  But then the whistle got louder. Stern heard it too, and others. Seconds later they all heard the explosion; as his people screamed and ran, Benjamin said a quick prayer to a God that he knew didn’t exist, then ran after them to get them to the caves as quickly as he could.

  ‘What is this place?’ Raffy asked cautiously, his eyes darting around, resting on Evie every so often, then over at Lucas, before darting back around the room.

  ‘This,’ Linus said, walking towards the biggest computer, ‘is my little hideout. My research centre. Please, have a seat.’

  Raffy ignored him. ‘But what are you doing here? What’s with all the computers? I thought we were going to Base Camp.’

  ‘You assumed we were going to Base Camp,’ Linus shrugged. ‘I doubt thought had much to do with it. You made an assumption based on previous experience.’

  Raffy’s eyes blackened.

  Lucas stepped forward. He wasn’t in the mood for this. Wasn’t in the mood for Linus’s little jokes and evasion tactics. ‘Linus, stop patronising Raffy and tell him what we’re doing here,’ he said. ‘Or let me tell him.

  Linus raised an eyebrow, and even Raffy looked taken aback. ‘You don’t think we should make tea first?’ Linus asked quizzically. ‘Come on, Lucas. Let’s be civilised, shall we?’

  Lucas opened his mouth to argue, then closed it again. He hadn’t meant to snap like that. He didn’t want to be here. Didn’t want to be in this cave with them, the two of them. He’d thought he would be okay, but he wasn’t. He wasn’t at all. His brother evidently hated him; Evie was being polite but it was clear that she was unhappy. And why wouldn’t she be? There was nothing to be happy about. His father had died for nothing; the City may not be in the grip of the System any more, but now it was under threat from the Informers, the murderers who were now looking for Raffy. It wasn’t a better place. It would never be a better place, and it made him feel ashamed.

  He caught Linus’s eye, saw his face crease into a half-smile, saw the kindness in and amongst the lines etched into his cheeks, around his eyes. And for a moment he saw not Linus the infuriating renegade, but instead Linus the man who built the System, who believed in it, who was forced to escape from the City when he discovered that it was being corrupted, that everything he had worked for was being usurped. And as they looked at each other, there was a brief moment of recognition. Because Linus had been hopeful too, once.

  ‘Tea, then,’ he said quietly. ‘But after that we tell Raffy and Evie everything.’

  Linus nodded, held Lucas’s gaze for a second or two more, then went in search of an old teapot. A few minutes later he started to make a fire.

  Raffy stared at him. ‘You’ve got enough electricity to power all these computers but now you need a fire to make a pot of tea? What about the kettle over there?’

  Linus frowned. ‘I thought Lucas was going to make the tea,’ he said with a little shrug, his eyes twinkling with their usual mirth. ‘I’m just building a fire for us to sit around. Raffy, help me, will you? There’s some wood over there.’

  Raffy hesitantly shuffled in the direction Linus was pointing; Lucas smiled to himself and went about making the tea. Evie, meanwhile, joined Lucas in Linus’s makeshift kitchen and collected together some cups, the two of them seeming to dance around each other, not meeting each other’s eyes, not bumping into each other, touching each other … She was avoiding him, he could see that. And he totally understood why. So he did the same, doing everything he could not to even make eye contact. He owed it to her. Owed it to Raffy.

  A few minutes later, Lucas brought the teapot over to where Raffy was adding logs to a fledgling fire. Somehow, in being busy, the atmosphere had defrosted slightly; Evie and Linus were talking and even Raffy didn’t look quite so thunderous. Maybe Linus had been right to insist on tea, Lucas realised. Maybe Linus was right about more than Lucas gave him credit for.

  ‘Right,’ he said, pouring the tea into the cups and handing them around. ‘Let’s talk, shall we?’


  ‘Okay,’ Linus said, gravely. He sat down and took a gulp of tea. ‘The thing about the Informers,’ he said, looking at Raffy carefully, ‘is that they’ve been in the City from the start. I’m beginning to think they were even involved in its genesis.’

  ‘So they’re City citizens?’ Evie asked, curiously, leaning forwards as though primed for action.

  Linus shook his head. ‘Not citizens, Evie. No, I don’t know where they’re citizens of. All I know is that after the Horrors, they watched and waited. And when they heard about the City, heard about the plans, they came to Fisher, came to our Great Leader …’ he raised an eyebrow to emphasise the irony, ‘and offered funding for his new City, offered help and support. Fisher didn’t tell me. He just took what he could get and brought the Brother in on it later, got him to help them run their little scam. And in return for the help, the Informers have, as far as I can tell, had the run of the place. They’ve been watching it all this time. Why, I’m not sure. What I do know, though, is that all this time they’ve been building their own civilisation with technology that is way ahead of anything I have, that’s been developed since the Horrors in places that are meant to have been completely destroyed.’

  ‘But why do they want Raffy? I mean, I know you said it’s because they think he can turn the System back on, but why?’

  ‘That’s what we need to find out,’ Linus said, breathing out heavily. ‘We need to find out what they want with the City and the System. We need to work out why they’re here. Because one thing is for sure, they are not a force for good. And they’re also very clever. Which in my book is not a great combination.’

  He rubbed his head. Evie’s eyes narrowed. ‘What?’ she said.

  Linus looked her curiously.

  ‘What else,’ she said, folding her arms. ‘You’re not telling us everything. I can tell.

  Linus grinned. ‘You can’t tell,’ he said, raising an eyebrow curiously.

  Evie raised an eyebrow right back at him and Lucas felt his heart lurch hopelessly.

  ‘Fine,’ Linus relented. ‘It’s nothing, really. Just a hunch, an idea. But looking at the chronology of this civilisation, the way it was in place before the Horrors finished …’ he trailed off as though unwilling to finish the sentence.

  ‘Tell us,’ Evie said, frowning. ‘Tell us your hunch.’

  Linus sighed. ‘It just seems too … fortuitous. Too clean. It’s almost like they knew. Knew what was going to happen.’

  ‘But that’s impossible,’ Lucas said, frowning.

  ‘Maybe,’ Linus pulled a face. ‘But looked at from a different angle, what seems impossible one day might look possible the next,’ he said. ‘In fact, most things that people think they know are actually not the truth at all. People used to think the world was flat. People used to think that the sun revolved around the earth. People think a whole lot of things that turn out to be wrong. People think what is easiest to believe. I haven’t got the right angle to look at this yet. Maybe, if I keep looking at it hard enough …’

  ‘So you might be wrong?’ Evie asked, then, her intelligent eyes penetrating Linus’s fearlessly. ‘I mean, you just said most of what we think is wrong, so you could be wrong now, couldn’t you?’

  Linus didn’t seem to take offence. He smiled. ‘Could be,’ he conceded. ‘But either way, there’s a civilisation out there that has kept itself a secret for a very long time, that has been able to hide itself from me.’

  ‘And they’re going to want to hide if they don’t want to be destroyed by me,’ a booming voice said from the ledge behind them, and a tall, majestic-looking man with dark skin and short, slightly greying hair appeared. ‘They have destroyed the Settlement. Everything we built. Everything …’

  ‘Benjamin!’ Raffy jumped up, ran towards him and helped him down. ‘What happened? Why are you here? You shouldn’t be here.’ He looked genuinely upset, Lucas noticed, genuinely worried.

  ‘What happened,’ Benjamin said, putting his arm around Raffy and walking slowly, grimly towards the group, ‘is that we are at war again.’

  He walked over to Linus and held out his hand; Evie could see tears pricking at his eyes. ‘I’m at your service,’ he said. ‘If you want me.’

  ‘Of course I do,’ Linus said, moving so that Benjamin could sit down. ‘Otherwise I’d never have told you how to find this place. But tell me. What happened?’

  ‘What happened was what you told me would happen. But the attack was from the air. A bomb. The whole Settlement was destroyed.’

  Lucas saw Raffy’s face drain of blood. ‘It’s been destroyed?’ he said, looking ill.

  ‘Only the buildings,’ Benjamin said, gravely. ‘Our people are safe in the caves,’ Benjamin nodded, shooting Linus a look of gratitude. He looked older, Evie noticed. As if he’d aged a decade in just a day. His eyes were flashing with anger, but his body looked defeated, beaten. ‘They’ll be fine for a few weeks. But I am not fine. I am angry.’

  ‘You came on foot?’ Lucas asked. ‘How did you get here so quickly?’

  Benjamin shook his head. ‘Linus suggested many years ago that I keep a vehicle in the cave, just in case. I never thought I would need it.’

  ‘Well I’m glad you came,’ Linus said, moving towards him and putting a hand on his arm. ‘Not about why you came, but it’s good to have you here.’

  ‘I am here to get justice. I am here because I need this to stop.’ Benjamin’s eyes were flashing, his jaw set firm. ‘It was a good place, the Settlement. We troubled no one. We gave the City what it asked for.’

  Linus raised his eyebrows. ‘These people don’t care about that,’ he said with a shrug. ‘You know that as well as I do. They don’t care about the City, for that matter. Acting for the City was just a means to an end for them.’

  ‘So what do they care about?’ Evie asked, her voice wavering.

  Linus breathed out. ‘There’s a question,’ he said. He leant forward. ‘Maybe they cared about something else, a long time ago. Maybe they thought there was some justification for what they were doing. The trouble is, Evie, that anyone who thinks they have an answer, a solution, anyone who thinks that they’re right, will inevitably become a tyrant. As soon as you proclaim one right answer, all other answers must be wrong. Dictators, religions … they think they want to save us, but all they really want to do is tramp over everyone and attack anyone who challenges them. It’s all just megalomania with a story attached to justify it.’

  ‘So they’re megalomaniacs?’ Evie frowned.

  Linus smiled. ‘Something like that. Ends justifying means. Violence brushed under the carpet, dissenters silenced. Believe me, it’s nothing new. But we have something they need, or at least the key to it. We need to play this very carefully. That’s the only way we’re going to win this little battle.’

  ‘You mean the System?’ Lucas asked.

  ‘The System,’ Linus nodded, breathing out slowly. ‘What I really want to know, though, is why.’

  He left the question hanging for a few seconds, then clapped his hands together. ‘Now, however, it’s time to get some rest.’

  ‘Rest?’ Evie asked indignantly, then stifled a yawn.

  ‘Sleep,’ Linus said firmly. ‘Come on, I’ll show you where I keep the blankets.’

  39

  Thomas Benning watched the news and smiled as desperate reporters stood in front of cameras, trying to interpret the latest attacks that had devastated the City of London and Birmingham on the same day: the first, an attack on wealth and capit-alism; the second, the work of religious extremists.

  Or so they thought, Thomas thought to himself with a smile.

  He wandered into Adrian’s office. ‘Two more weeks, then we go big,’ he said.

  ‘Big? You mean …’

  ‘I mean war. I mean armies, destruction on a global scale. It has to feel like the world is coming to an end.’

  Adrian appeared to consider this. ‘But … the bombs here. They’re already pretty big.’
/>   ‘Yes, yes,’ Thomas said impatiently. ‘But they’re just here. Now it’s time for phase two. We block off information from the rest of the world. Total blackout.’ Adrian’s face screwed up as he opened his mouth to ask a question. ‘A blackout that no one is aware of because we simultaneously fill the void with the content we want them to see,’ Thomas continued, before Adrian could interrupt. He found explaining all the time so tiresome. ‘And do the same going out from the UK.’

  ‘So no one knows what we’ve done?’

  ‘Would you know that I’d taken over the airwaves if your television channel continued as normal?’ Thomas asked.

  Adrian shook his head.

  ‘Would you know your friend in Europe was dead if you continued to receive emails from her, phone calls and web updates?’

  Adrian shook his head again. ‘But when people come here, when they fly out, they’ll see the reality,’ he said.

  ‘Which is why the curfew and the closure of airports comes first,’ Thomas said, rolling his eyes. ‘You don’t think I’ve thought of everything? You don’t think I’ve got every single detail worked out?’

  He laughed. ‘Just do as I tell you, Adrian. Do what I ask and everything is going to happen just as it’s supposed to.’

  40

  Evie followed Linus towards the cupboard where he kept the blankets and took some out. Lucas was behind her; she gave one to him. He looked awkward. ‘Thanks,’ he said. ‘Are there enough?’

  Evie glanced up at him; she could smell him, could feel the warmth of his skin. He looked so different from the man she’d known in the City, like a completely different person. But not a stranger. He looked older than he had when she’d seen him last; lines had appeared around his clear blue eyes. He looked exhausted. Like he’d almost given up on himself, she found herself thinking.

  She nodded. ‘There are plenty,’ she said, clearing her throat. ‘Take another. It’ll probably be cold.’

  Raffy was a few metres away; too far away to hear them talking, but she could feel his eyes scrutinising them, could feel his anger.