‘You could never …’
‘We have guests!’ sings a voice, causing Ketch to groan and the rest of us to jump.
‘Stephanie,’ he replies hurriedly. ‘They were just –’
‘Eve!’ she interrupts, her beautiful face turning to look at me, clearly intrigued. Such perfection. She reminds me of Holly, her expression knowing and innocent all at once. Although she’s different somehow. Her expectant gaze makes me stand a little taller, appear a little stronger. She breaks eye contact and moves on to the other members of our group. ‘Bram Wells, Michael Turner and Ernest Warren,’ she says, a smile spreading across her red lips. ‘Please come with me to our VIP entrance to avoid congestion.’
I look around at the stark area surrounding us and back at Stephanie.
‘Thanks,’ says Michael, shuffling behind her to encourage us all to follow suit.
Despite his reservations, Bram does as he’s told. We all do.
Whatever this place is, they’re expecting it to be busy, I think, as we pass multiple help points and check-in desks. We bypass those and head straight towards the circular entrance.
‘Please come forward one by one, go into the cylinder, and stop on the gold mark,’ Stephanie instructs, stopping us just a few metres away from our final destination. ‘Here you will be scanned from head to toe.’
‘Why?’ Bram demands.
‘Protocol,’ she replies. ‘The gates to Eraeon won’t open without us knowing what you are.’
Bram shoots a questioning look towards Ketch and Michael, but Stephanie continues to speak. ‘It’s important to know how much light and matter are entering.’
‘It’s fine,’ insists Ketch. ‘Once it knows you’re matter it’ll hover over your heart for a few seconds for further clarification. It needs to know you’re real, nothing more. It’s just population control. Stand there, get scanned and get going. This is taking far too long, Mikey,’ he says, with urgency and a quick glance behind us.
‘Go,’ I tell them. ‘Can you stand, Dad?’
‘Only for a second or two,’ he grunts.
‘We’ll go either side of you,’ Michael says, carefully placing him against Bram so that he can go through and be ready to receive him on the other side.
Ketch manoeuvres himself so that he’s on the opposite side of the glass cylinder.
I watch as Michael stands on the gold spot. Once he’s still, a bright beam of light moves from the top of his head down to the bottom of his heavy-duty boots. The data is then transmitted on to the glass panel between him and Ketch, showing the outline of his frame and the location of his organs.
Satisfied, the beam then pings back up to his chest, lingering for a second before a beep sounds and a red beacon light appears to locate his heart on the image before him. He is declared as matter – which I find comforting after today’s events – and encouraged to walk through.
‘Your turn, Ernest Warren,’ Stephanie encourages, while Bram carefully helps him into the cylinder.
A beam of light, a satisfied bleep, a glowing red light.
Matter.
Michael catches him once he’s cleared for entry, the two of them lingering under the circular arch.
‘Bram Wells.’ Stephanie smiles, her hand gesturing him forward.
‘I’m surprised you’re still alive,’ Ketch says to Bram, an air of something unpleasant in his voice.
‘Family connections,’ Bram says, his voice raspy and tired. He starts to make his way through, but stops himself and turns back. ‘I’m sorry,’ he says, looking straight at Ketch. ‘I didn’t want any of that to happen. We just … it just … got out of hand. We …’ He stops, choked on his own words.
Their eyes remain locked as they take each other in.
‘Thank you,’ Ketch eventually says. ‘You’d better go and help Ernie …’
Bram nods, his face still shadowed with regret, and steps on to the gold spot.
A beam of light, a satisfied bleep, a glowing red light.
Matter. He glances at me with a relieved smile before stepping away.
‘Eve,’ invites Stephanie.
I step inside, looking towards the three men waiting for me on the other side.
A beam of light.
A beam of light.
Two beeps.
No beacon.
‘What?’ I hear myself whimper, looking up to Ketch.
‘One second.’ He frowns, going to a pad beside him and punching at it so that it repeats the process.
‘Do we have time for this?’ shouts Michael, becoming impatient as he and Bram struggle with Ernie.
‘Yes,’ croaks Ketch, staring intently at the screen.
‘Can’t you override it and let her through?’ Bram shouts.
‘Wait!’ Ketch replies. ‘This’ll take a second.’
There’s a commotion from across the hall as we hear shouting and feet stampeding along the floor.
‘Take him through!’ I demand to Michael and Bram, holding my father. ‘Don’t waste time.’
They’re hesitant, but as the machine starts moving again they do as I say, walking through the archway and down the corridor beyond.
A beam of light.
A beam of light.
Two beeps.
A beacon of light hovering over my heart.
Matter.
Relieved, because I was almost starting to doubt my own existence, I look through the glass to Ketch. However, his eyes are fixed elsewhere in complete bewilderment. Intrigued, I follow his gaze. And there it is, a second flash of red hovering a foot lower than the first.
There’s a second heartbeat.
A second heartbeat.
I’m speechless. Breathless.
‘Eve,’ Ketch whispers.
Looking up I find a face full of bewilderment and hope staring back at me.
‘Is that –’ I’m trying to process what I think I’m seeing.
‘You have to go. Now,’ Ketch says in shock.
My head bops around, my whole body having turned to jelly.
‘Quickly.’
I do as he says, wobbling as I place one foot in front of the other towards a new world.
A world I’m not prepared for.
A world in which I’m pregnant.
To be continued …
Acknowledgements
Firstly, let’s start with a massive thanks to you, the reader. If you’re reading this then we imagine you’ve already read the first book in the trilogy, which hopefully means you enjoyed that book enough to read this one. HURRAH! Hopefully your nose will be getting stuck into the third book of the saga when that arrives too.
A huge thanks to our incredible teams at Michael Joseph and Penguin Random House Children’s for continuing to gel into one big supergroup to tackle a co-written book by two busy authors. Our thanks goes out to Tom Weldon, Francesca Dow and Louise Moore for giving us our amazing troop of talented humans; Rebecca Hilsdon, Maxine Hitchcock, Natalie Doherty and Amanda Punter for their superb editorial input; Hazel Orme for putting us through our paces with the copy-edit; Emma Henderson for tackling the page proofs; Lee Motley and Jacqui McDonough for designing the cover; Ellie Hughes, Ella Watkins, Harriet Venn and Sophia Dryden for ensuring people know about the book; Claire Bush, Jennifer Breslin and Michelle Nathan for encouraging people to read the book; Christina Ellicott and Geraldine McBride for kindly asking shops to sell the book; Chantal Noel, Zosia Knopp and their teams for ensuring the book is translated and read in lots of different countries around the world; Alice Mottram for making the book an actual tangible thing; and to anyone in the office who has had to listen to any of this lot going on about this series for the last four and a half years … one book to go!
Massive thanks to our brilliant agents Stephanie Thwaites and Hannah Ferguson, managers Fletcher and Happy Entertainment, Rebecca Burton, Claire Dundas, Angela Walter and all the team at YM&U, and Kaz Gill.
A big shout out to both our families who’ve kept asking wh
en this book is out so they can read the next instalment – they’ve really piled on the pressure. We couldn’t do what we do without their support, love and laughter.
Lastly, our boys – Buzz, Buddy and Max. We are so lucky to call you ours.
THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING
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First published by Michael Joseph, 2020
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ISBN: 978-1-405-92718-5
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorized distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
The Eve Illusion Page 27