The Killables (26 page)

And then . . .

Then, Linus had told Evie gently, she and Raffy could choose what they wanted to do. She, Raffy and Lucas, he’d corrected himself, bringing a flush to Evie’s cheeks. They could stay in the City, he’d said. They could come back to Base Camp. They could go and join one of the other communities, the other cities that he’d told them about. Evie had asked him if he was going back to Base Camp, but he hadn’t answered; he’d just smiled, his face creasing even more than usual, his blue eyes twinkling as though they were sharing a private joke, even though Evie didn’t know what the joke was or why it was meant to be funny.

‘Do you think that you can ever really get rid of evil?’ she’d asked him. ‘I mean, if the New Baptisms had actually worked?’

Linus had looked at her, the smile still on his face, but his eyes sad. ‘I’m not sure evil really exists,’ he said, his voice low and quiet. ‘I think people can do terrible things if they’re pushed or ignored or angry, if they feel hopeless and helpless and desperate enough.’ Then he’d looked her right in the eye. ‘But you, Evie, you are not evil. Do you understand? Whatever you’ve been told, whatever you’ve been led to believe. You. Are. Not. Evil. And nor is Raffy. You have to remember that. You have to hold on to that. You promise?’

And Evie had nodded, and she’d wanted to believe him, but she couldn’t be sure. Because the anger inside her was still raging and there were terrible ideas in her head that she couldn’t suppress – didn’t want to suppress. But she didn’t tell Linus. She just managed a little smile, then walked over to Raffy because it was time to leave, because it was time . . .

Lucas stared at the computer screen, at the message from Linus, and he took a deep breath, trying to contain his fear, his excitement. It was happening. After all this time, it was finally happening. He looked around; he knew no one was watching, knew no one suspected, but his reflexes were on high alert, as they always were, as they had been for most of his life. Soon he could be free. Truly free. His promises to his father would be met; he could live again.

Carefully, he closed the message, wiped the device, removed all traces of it from the System. Then he stood up, wavering for a moment as his legs nearly gave way beneath him, the enormity of what was happening hitting him like a tornado. But immediately he regained his balance, his poise. This was no time to be allowing emotions to surface; there would be time for that later. Right now, he had to focus, to concentrate. There were things to do. The key to the West Gate had been secured; he had visited Greer, the key holder, on the pretext of discussing security, and had easily secreted it out of the house. But he had to get it to the gate at the right moment, had to time it perfectly. Then he had to secure access to the government buildings for Linus and Raffy, for Evie and Martha.

Evie.

He shook himself. He was ready. Everything was ready.

He walked towards the door, took one look back, then opened it. And his face fell.

‘Lucas,’ the Brother greeted him, standing just outside with Sam, Lucas’s deputy, at his side. A little smile of quiet triumph played on his lips. There were police guards behind him; they stared at Lucas with menace in their eyes, the usual respect and deference gone. ‘Are you going somewhere? Only I hoped we might have a word.’

His eyes met Sam’s, who quickly looked away. And then Lucas knew.

‘Might I shut down my computer first?’ he asked.

The Brother shook his head. ‘I don’t think that will be necessary,’ he said, his eyes suddenly very hard. ‘I think it would be best if you came straight away.’

The guards stepped forward. Lucas closed his eyes for just a second, allowing himself just the briefest moment, then he steeled himself and nodded.

‘Of course,’ he said formally, his eyes glazing over, his mask, his constant companion, covering his face once more. ‘Whatever you say, Brother.’

The heat was scorching as they walked, merciless as it beat down on top of them, their hats no match for its relentlessness.

‘Drink,’ Linus said every half an hour or so. ‘Keep drinking. We have a long way to go.’

After four hours they stopped for some food – some sandwiches and hard cakes that felt heavy in Evie’s stomach.

‘Now we rest for twenty minutes,’ Linus told them. ‘And then we must move again if we’re going to get to the City for sundown.’

Raffy and Evie headed for the shade of a sparse tree and sat against it heavily. They had barely spoken in over a day, had existed together but separately. It was a purgatory that Evie had come to accept, even to appreciate. Because anything was better than being alone. And because she understood – she knew that she deserved it.

‘You scared?’ Raffy asked.

Evie turned to him, her expression curious. She was many things, but it hadn’t occurred to her to be scared.

‘Not scared,’ she said. ‘I’m just . . .’ She searched for the right word and floundered. There was no word, nothing that could encapsulate how she felt – how apprehensive, excited, driven, angry, determined. And then she realised that she
was
scared. She was scared of failing. ‘Maybe a bit,’ she conceded.

‘Me too,’ Raffy admitted quietly.

‘Okay,’ Linus said, walking over. ‘Time to get going. You guys okay? Need anything?’

‘We’re fine,’ Raffy said, standing up, and a few seconds later, as though it were an afterthought, holding out his hand to Evie awkwardly.

‘Fine,’ she agreed as she did her best to pull herself up while at the same time accepting his offer, not wanting to agitate him, not wanting to turn down any suggestion of warmth between them.

‘Good,’ Linus declared. ‘No stops now until we meet with Angel and the damaged ones a mile from the City.’

Lucas was led out of the System building and through a covered passage, used only for dissidents and prisoners, which led to the hospital.

‘Is someone going to tell me what’s going on?’ he asked eventually when he was led into a room, forced into a chair and then chained to it, his hands behind his back.

‘What’s going on? Oh, Lucas. I think you know what’s going on. Your plans are being ruined. That’s what’s going on. You’ve been discovered, you traitor. All these years I have depended on you, trusted in you, and all along you were planning to betray me. Well, I too am capable of duplicity, Lucas. I too can spy and watch and keep tabs. In fact, I am rather good at it, as you should have realised before you decided to take me on. So this is what’s going to happen. You will be made a K as of tomorrow. The System change is already in progress. Your friends, when they arrive, will be met by an army of police guards who will kill them all before they so much as set foot in the City. I am sorry that you let evil into you, Lucas. I am sorry that it has come to this. Which is why you will be given the New Baptism. Everyone deserves a second chance, Lucas, even you.’

‘The New Baptism?’ Lucas stared at him in alarm. ‘But if I’m a K, you should—’

‘Leave you to be mauled by the Evils? Oh, Lucas, you have been listening to gossip again.’ The Brother smiled, playing with him. ‘Everyone knows that K’s are reconditioned. We are a forgiving society, after all. We protect our flock. And anyway, you are too consumed with evil to be safe. I cannot risk having evil of your scale present, even beyond our walls.’

Lucas wrestled against his chains. ‘You can’t do this,’ he shouted. ‘Sam! Do something! You know me. You know I’m not evil. Help me. Get me out of here.’

But Sam refused to meet his eyes; instead he walked towards the door. He believed the Brother, Lucas realised with a thud. Believed that Lucas was evil, that K’s were reconditioned, that everyone had the New Baptism – believed everything he had ever been told. Just like Lucas had, before his father had revealed the truth. ‘Shall I inform the police guard?’ Sam asked the Brother.

‘Tell them sundown,’ the Brother said. ‘That was the time you agreed in your last message, wasn’t it?’ he continued, smiling at Lucas.

Lucas closed his eyes.

‘Sundown it is,’ Sam said, leaving the room.

‘Well, much as I’d love to stay and chat, I have a few things to be getting on with,’ declared the Brother. ‘Guards, keep him here. Don’t take your eyes off him. Do you understand? This man is very dangerous and very evil. Do not listen to what he has to say because he will do his best to corrupt you.’

The guards nodded.

‘Goodbye, Lucas,’ the Brother said then, sweeping towards the door. ‘Goodbye.’

‘Okay. We wait here.’ It was just beginning to get dark; the cool air felt light on the back of Evie’s neck but the hairs on it stood up as they stopped. No one was talking; there was nothing to say. Everyone was concentrating, focusing; Linus was pacing up and down, making everyone feel slightly on edge – as though the tension weren’t high enough already. And then, they heard it. The sound of wheels driving through the dust. A sound rarely heard and barely understood by Evie and Raffy. The sound got louder as the wheels rushed towards them, a low hum that got somehow higher as it got nearer. And then the van appeared in front of them, looming huge on the horizon. But as it got closer, another sound could be heard; a sound that made everyone stop, glance at each other, then look away quickly. A wailing, a crying, angry grunts that were instantly recognisable, that filled Evie with terror and repulsion then shame for feeling such things about her own people, about those whose lives had been damaged irreparably by the cruelty of the City.

The van stopped a few metres away; it was huge, far larger than anything Evie had ever seen on wheels, or seen moving full stop. As big as a house, she found herself thinking. Or at least one of the Base Camp tents. And then the doors were opening and the wails and grunts became unbearably loud as Angel got out and the damaged ones in the back started to shout, crying out and moaning, their faces clearly visible through the glass. Evie felt her eyes fill with tears which she was helpless to control. Linus walked over. ‘They are not who they were before,’ he said gently to her, so quietly no one else could hear. ‘Remember that. And if they were, they would be with us. Every step of the way.’

Evie nodded and felt Raffy’s hand tighten around hers. She squeezed back as hard as she could, hoping to tell him everything with that one movement, but then he let go and everything was cold again. She didn’t want to look at the damaged ones, but she couldn’t help it. She had to see them, each of them, with their staring eyes, their convulsing bodies, their terrifying screams and moans. The Evils. The feared ones. They seemed more afraid than anyone she had ever seen in her life, even Raffy’s father the day he was taken away. She watched them, then slowly turned away as Linus gave the signal to start walking. But as she walked, she could still see them in her mind’s eye. Could still see the people who had carried her to the City, believing they were being offered a second chance. The people who had believed in the Great Leader, who had offered themselves up like sacrificial lambs. They were the real killables. They had been disposable. Used once, then again and again by the Brother and the Great Leader to serve their despicable ends.

And now they were being used one more time. For her ends. For Linus’s.

‘You okay?’ Raffy asked, looking at her anxiously.

She shook her head. ‘I can’t do this,’ she replied, welling up. ‘I can’t let the damaged ones go to their deaths.’

‘Their deaths?’ Linus asked, looking slightly taken aback.

‘They’re decoys. The police guard will kill them, you know they will.’

‘I know nothing of the sort,’ Linus said, his face serious suddenly. ‘You think I’d let the police guard lay a hand on them? No, Evie, they’ve suffered enough. They’re just going to shake things up a bit, get some revenge for what they’ve been through. We all are.’

‘Really?’ Evie asked dubiously.

‘Trust me,’ Linus said, winking. He waited for Evie to nod, then started to walk. ‘Okay, everyone, let’s go.’

‘Okay. Angel, you head to the East Gate with the damaged ones. Everyone else, you come with me. Now remember. We’re in the City for one hour maximum. We change labels, we disable and reprogramme the System and then we go. Understand?’

Everyone nodded, then they watched in silence as Angel and his men got back into the van and drove off, the wails and groans of the damaged ones inside echoing through the still night until they could barely be heard.

‘Lucas is going to be at the gate?’ Raffy asked as they started to walk again. There was an edge to his voice that Evie suspected only she noticed and her heart sank. He was angry again – an anger that would only increase when he saw Lucas.

‘That’s the plan,’ Linus said, swinging his hands by his sides as though he was taking a little stroll instead of marching into battle.

‘What if they’ve changed the locks on the East Gate? I mean, they know Evie and I took the key.’

‘They haven’t. There’s no need to. The gates are bolted from the inside.’

‘So how are the damaged ones going to get in?’

‘Lucas has opened the bolts,’ Linus said, stopping to turn to Raffy. He sounded impatient, but Evie could see his eyes twinkling in the moonlight. ‘Raffy, I’ve told you. All you have to concentrate on is the System when we get there. Reprogramming it. You can do that?’

‘Of course I can,’ Raffy answered gruffly. ‘I showed you. A thousand times.’

‘I know you can. I trust you. So try trusting me.’ Linus winked before turning back to the front to continue marching.

Raffy opened his mouth as if to say something, then appeared to think better of it. Evie knew how he felt; she felt it too: anxious and in need of answers, reassurance, promises. And Linus seemed too confident, too relaxed, like he didn’t understand what they were doing, like he wasn’t taking it that seriously.

She shivered, the cool air bringing up little goosebumps on her arms. Then the shiver intensified as she saw a wall on the horizon. The City wall. They were here. They were just minutes away. She glanced at Raffy, who held her gaze for a second or two, then shoved his hands in his pockets. ‘Looking forward to seeing Lucas?’ he asked pointedly, and his voice was so cold it felt like a stab to Evie’s chest.