The Killables (29 page)

‘Lucas.’ It was Raffy who spoke, Raffy who saw him first. Then she felt him leave her side in a blur as he lunged forward without warning, and suddenly he was pulling Lucas to the floor and hitting him.

‘You bastard! You couldn’t let me have anything of my own, could you?’ he raged. ‘You took my father from me, then all my friends. And you had to take Evie, too. You had to try.’

‘Raffy, stop,’ Lucas said through gritted teeth as blow after blow landed on him. Then Evie watched, startled, as he grabbed Raffy’s hands and forced them behind him. The move was seamless, almost effortless, exhibiting a strength that Evie had seen just once before, against Mr Bridges’ attackers. Raffy was pinned down on the floor, kicking like an upside-down beetle, helpless and frustrated. Lucas pressed his knees onto Raffy’s legs, making him stop.

‘Are you done now?’ he asked, his voice low.

Raffy shook his head, seething. ‘Never.’

Lucas looked down, his eyes clouded over. He seemed tired suddenly. Raffy noticed too, and tried to take the opportunity to wrest himself loose from Lucas’s grip, but Lucas was too quick for him, turning him over to his front so Raffy’s chin pressed into the ground.

‘You have to listen to me,’ Lucas said to him, his voice low. ‘I wasn’t responsible for Dad being taken away. He knew he was about to be made a K. He knew the Brother wanted to get rid of him. He trained me up. He told me I had to inform on him so I’d be beyond suspicion. He told me how to work my way up, how to get into the System so that I could continue his work. He made me promise, Raffy.’

‘And that’s why you kissed Evie? You pretend to be helping me, but you’re not, Lucas. I don’t know what your game is, but I see through you even if no one else does,’ Raffy spat.

‘I kissed Evie because . . . because . . .’ Lucas looked up, met Evie’s eyes, and she felt a jolt of something – pain, fear, desire – that made her shrink back and lower her eyes once more. ‘I don’t know why. It was stupid.’

Evie felt a stab of disappointment, which she immediately suppressed. She watched Raffy warily as Lucas let go of him, but Raffy didn’t move; he stared at Lucas insolently.

Lucas sighed. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘Okay? I’m sorry for everything. Truly, Raffy. Is that what you need to hear?’

Raffy rolled over, stood up and staggered back towards Evie. ‘Yeah, well I’m sorry too,’ he said. ‘Sorry for you.’

Lucas nodded silently. His eyes were avoiding Evie; she knew because she was avoiding his, too. She didn’t trust herself to look at him, didn’t trust the emotions that would be conjured up. Instead she reached out for Raffy’s hand, squeezed it, held it tight. Had it been stupid? She closed her eyes. Of course it had. Stupid was exactly the right word for it.

Lucas stood up, slowly. ‘So where are Linus and Martha?’ he asked. ‘Everything’s ready for you to leave.’

‘Where indeed?’ Martha said, walking into the room suddenly. ‘I’ve looked everywhere and I can’t find him.’

Lucas swung round in alarm. ‘I don’t understand. Everything’s running like clockwork. Where could he have gone?’

Martha pulled a face. ‘He could have gone anywhere. That’s the thing with Linus. You never really know what he’s thinking behind that smile of his.’

Lucas frowned. ‘You want me to take you to the gate instead?’ he asked, but Martha shook her head.

‘We’re not going without him,’ she replied. ‘So, everyone’s in the Meeting House, right?’

Lucas nodded.

‘And the Brother?’

‘He’s there too. Locked up in the back room. I’ve left Mr Bridges to keep an eye on him, but . . .’

‘But you need to get back. I understand. I think we should all go with you.’

‘To the Meeting House?’ Raffy asked uncertainly. ‘But we’re meant to be leaving. If they see us . . . If the police guard know we’re here . . .’

‘Yes, but if I know Linus, and I think I do, then the Meeting House is where he’s headed. And if he’s there, then that’s where we must go.’ Martha turned to Lucas. ‘Can you get us there without anyone seeing?’

‘Sure,’ Lucas nodded.

‘Then let’s go,’ Martha said, a determined look on her face. ‘Let’s go and get him.’

The streets were deserted, but still they crept along the pavement, close to the wall; still they looked around furtively, flinching every time they heard a sound. The damaged ones had left, presumably secreted out safely by Angel; now an eerie silence had descended on the City. Everyone was in the Meeting House – everyone except the police guard, who were still patrolling the streets. No one spoke as they crept further into the City, towards the people they had all, in their different ways, escaped from.

Evie’s throat felt tight with fear as she walked. Raffy was to her right; every so often he took her hand, shot her a look and squeezed her shoulder. And she would return the look, offer him a smile and nod to let him know that she was fine, that everything was good. And every so often Lucas would look back to whisper to Martha and his eyes would catch Evie’s and she would hold his stare for a second or two before forcing her gaze away and looking anxiously at Raffy to see if he had seen, if he knew. But Raffy would be looking ahead, always straight ahead.

‘Okay, we’re here,’ Lucas said finally as they approached the back of the Meeting House on a path that Evie had never used before. ‘You all wait here. Don’t leave the shadows. I’ll go in and see if I can find Linus.’

‘I’ll come with you,’ Raffy declared, and Lucas looked at him cautiously, then shook his head. ‘It’s not safe,’ he replied. ‘You have to stay hidden.’

‘Because I’m a K? I heard that you’re a K now, too. Why is it safe for you to go in and not me?’

‘Because . . .’ Lucas cleared his throat, apparently lost for words for a moment. Then he put his hands on Raffy’s shoulders. ‘Because I have no one to miss me if I die. I have done what Dad asked me to do. You . . . Evie is depending on you. You have to look after her.’

Raffy opened his mouth to speak, then turned and looked at Evie, who stared back at him desperately, not wanting him to go but not wanting to stop him, either.

‘I’ll be no time,’ Lucas said softly, breaking the silence, then he slipped away on his own. Just like always, Evie thought to herself.

The Meeting House was packed, just as Lucas had known it would be, the entire population of the City within its cavernous walls. Everyone was talking in worried voices and the result was an almost deafening hum of noise, questions and uncertainty. It took Lucas all his strength to block everything out as he slipped into the room at the back where he had left the Brother. Where could Linus be? With the Brother? Checking that Lucas had done his job properly? Elsewhere? If Linus was in the crowd, he would never find him. Lucas sighed; he realised as he approached the room that he barely knew Linus, that for years he had confided in and trusted a man he knew hardly anything about. But, he told himself, his father had trusted Linus, and that was enough. That would have to be enough.

He reached the door where Mr Bridges was waiting. ‘Thank you,’ Lucas said gravely. ‘Thank you so much. You can go now. You have done enough.’

Mr Bridges looked around fearfully. Lucas put a hand on his shoulder. ‘The Brother didn’t see you; he doesn’t know who has been guarding him. No one knows that you helped me in any way. Go, sit with the congregation – and know that tomorrow your label will have changed for good, just as everyone’s labels will have changed. They will not change again. The System has been disabled. There will be no more labels. You’re free. Do you understand?’

Mr Bridges nodded, his eyes still full of anxiety. ‘And you?’ he asked. ‘What will happen to you?’

‘I’ll be fine.’ Lucas smiled. ‘I’ve just got some unfinished business, that’s all. But thank you again. I cannot tell you how much—’

‘It was nothing,’ Mr Bridges cut in. ‘It was the least I could do. When I told you that day that I would repay the debt I owed you, I meant it.’ He held out a shaking hand and Lucas clasped it. ‘You’re a brave man,’ Mr Bridges whispered. ‘A good man. I hope that one day you’ll be free to be a happy man, too.’ And with that, he walked away, slipping into the shadows, towards the main room of the Meeting House; back to his community, back to where he belonged. Lucas watched him for a few seconds, wondering if he would ever belong anywhere himself . . . Then he pulled himself together. He belonged here, now. He had to find Linus. He had to finish what he had started. Taking a deep breath, he took out a key and opened the door.

But instead of being greeted by the scene he was expecting – the Brother, gagged and tied to a chair, just as he had left him – he found something else. An empty room. No sign of the Brother; no sign of anyone.

He swung round to call after Mr Bridges, to ask him what had happened, but it was too late – he was long gone, impossible to find now. He wouldn’t have let the Brother go. No one else knew where the Brother was. Lucas ran over to the high, single window and stretched up to tug at it; it had been unlocked. So the Brother had left without Mr Bridges knowing. But how? How had the Brother untied himself when Lucas himself had secured the knots? His mind raced, his pulse quickened and a sheen of sweat covered his body. Then he started, because he could hear shouting – and he recognised one of the voices. He jumped up to the window but it was too high; there was no clear view of what was happening below. Instead, he left the room, racing back along the corridor towards the door he had come in through. The voice he had heard was the Brother’s. The other, he suddenly realised he knew as well. And he knew that he had to do something, quickly, before people heard, before everything they had planned so meticulously was ruined. Barely caring who saw him, Lucas hurled open the door and ran around the building to where he’d heard the voices.

‘Lucas.’ It was the Brother who spoke. He was standing with his back to the building, and in front of him was Linus. For a few seconds, Lucas studied the man he’d known remotely for so long; at the hospital he’d been too dazed to take much in. Linus was tall and muscular, more athletic than Lucas had imagined, with short grey hair. And his face, when he turned around to greet Lucas, reminded Lucas of an overripe peach, with its creases and lines like a landscape dried by the sun. Full of warmth, but tough, strong – used to surviving where others might give up.

‘Lucas,’ he said, breaking out into a smile that etched its way into every corner of his face. ‘It’s good to see you. Have the others gone?’

Sam stared at the wall in front of him. Was he going mad? Had he really seen who he thought he’d seen? Quickly he approached the front of the Meeting Hall. Still no sign of the Brother in spite of his clear instructions to meet him here half an hour ago. And now Lucas. It had been Lucas. He knew it. He’d recognise that upright posture anywhere. And if Lucas was here, and the Brother wasn’t . . .

He turned and marched to the back of the building where two police guards were standing sentry, reassuring the City’s inhabitants that they would be safe inside, that the Evils would not trouble them in such a sacred place. ‘I think you might need some back-up,’ he said.

‘Back-up?’ One of the police guards frowned. ‘There’s no back-up. Everyone’s out hunting down the Evils. Why? What’s going on?’

‘The Brother is missing and I just saw a K in the building,’ Sam said, his eyes narrowing. ‘So please call for back-up or I shall have to talk to your superior.’ He turned slightly, just enough to make sure that the guard saw his label and the gold inflection on it that told him Sam was one of the Brother’s chosen few.

The guard blanched, then nodded. ‘Yes, sir,’ he said. ‘I’ll get on to it right away. You can leave it with me, sir.’

‘Good,’ Sam answered, and swept away.

‘Linus, this isn’t what we agreed.’

Lucas turned to see Martha behind him, walking towards them, her arms folded. Behind her were Raffy and Evie. Lucas forced his eyes away from Evie and turned back to Linus.

‘Ah,’ Linus said. ‘So they’re still here.’

‘They wouldn’t leave without you,’ said Lucas. ‘Please tell me what the Brother is doing out here? The plan was to leave him in the Meeting House. The plan—’

‘Plans change,’ Linus declared with a grin. ‘The Brother and I were just having a little chat. A little catch-up.’ Linus smiled again – a thousand smiles caught up in one face, Lucas found himself thinking.

‘We’re not safe,’ Lucas told him. ‘We need to leave.’

‘Lucas, my friend,’ Linus said, his eyes twinkling. ‘You’re right, as always. But it pays to be adaptable, wouldn’t you say? And the Brother and I are nearly finished anyway.’

The Brother looked at him as though he were a rodent. ‘We were finished a long time ago, Linus.’

‘Really?’ Linus looked nonplussed. ‘Huh. Maybe I’m wrong then. Maybe this was a wasted trip.’ He started to walk away, everyone watching him, then he stopped, turned and smiled again.

‘Ah, you’re teasing me, aren’t you? We both know there are things we need to discuss. And since we’re here with nothing much better to do, why not talk?’ He walked towards the Brother until he was just inches away. ‘So, let’s talk,’ he said then, his voice low and threatening.

Lucas looked at Martha, wondering whether to intervene, but she shook her head and stepped back. Lucas followed suit, his eyes inadvertently travelling to where Evie stood, her white skin almost luminous in the moonlight, her intelligent eyes fixed on Linus, no fear on her face at all. Next to her stood Raffy, his face the same as always, his emotions right there on the surface so you felt like you could touch them. His body taut, ready for action; his hair curling around his face, as unruly as he was.

‘So, Brother. Still peddling your lies, huh? Still wrecking people’s lives?’

The Brother regarded him stonily. ‘You know and I know, Linus, that in difficult times, difficult decisions are needed. Courage of convictions. A plan. You never understood that. You were too idealistic. But idealism has no place in the real world.’

‘The real world,’ Linus said thoughtfully, moving back, taking a few steps to the left, then returning to where he’d stood before. ‘And this is the real world?’