The Fall (23 page)

‘I can’t leave until I know they’re all safe,’ he said. ‘But you can. You were caught on camera at Three Mills. You said so yourself. They’ve seen your new face. Everyone will be looking for you. You should go with your father. Splitting up now is our best chance.’

Their best chance was staying together. Anyway, after everything that had happened today, she wasn’t going to leave the City. Not until the country knew who Evelyn Knight really was. ‘I’m coming back with you.’

‘Your father will stop you, Ana.’

‘But you think he’ll let you walk away?’ she asked, at the same time realising he did, and her father probably would. ‘Cole, please. No.’ She bit her lip. ‘No.’ Taking a deep breath she shifted her eyes out of the window where Dombrant had begun striding back across the field to the car.
You might not get another chance.

Ducking through the gap in the front seats, she hooked up Cole’s black rucksack, which her father had left on the floor. By the weight of it, she guessed it still contained clothes and her bottle of water.

‘What are you doing?’ Cole asked. She turned back to him. He couldn’t run for it, but she could. And without Ana, her father would most likely let him go and use him to try and find her again.

‘Meet you back at the Wetlands,’ she said. Without giving him time to respond, she jumped from the car and began sprinting.

Long grass whipped against her legs. Knotted clumps of weeds clawed at her tennis shoes.
Don’t think. Just run.

Cole shouted her name. She moved faster, leaping, flying. Her father’s voice carried on the wind, but she couldn’t make out his words. After half a minute she risked a backwards glance. Warden Dombrant had given chase. Cole lumbered much further behind, struggling without his crutches.

She pushed harder. Dombrant was fit, but he was twice her age, stocky and his legs weren’t any longer than hers. She could outrun him.

The wind slashed through her hair. Her rucksack thumped against her back. The muscles in her thighs began to burn softly. She was still fit from weeks of rigorous swimming before her escape to the Project. She’d seen the interface map the Warden had been projecting as he drove. She was close to the M1, and the M1 south led back to North London. Ten miles maximum and she would be able to find a Tube, jump the barrier and cross London to the Wetlands. She could be there before nightfall.

On the motorway below the bank, a car sped by. The first they’d seen all afternoon. A bad feeling coiled in her gut. She looked back. Dombrant, who’d fallen behind, slowed to examine the car too. Suddenly, five hundred metres away, the vehicle swerved and screeched up the bank. In a flash, Dombrant reversed direction.

Ana stopped in her tracks. The car disappeared behind trees, then burst into view on the other side. As Dombrant passed Cole, he shouted and dropped something shiny. Cole swept it up and continued limping towards her.

The saloon pulled over beside Ana’s father. Four doors popped open. Men in black trousers and grey jackets leapt out. Instinctively, Ana dropped down on her hands and knees. Hidden in the long grass, she saw one of the men’s heads turn in Cole’s direction. A moment later, three of them were sprinting through the fields. Cole veered away from her, his lopsided gait growing worse as he pushed himself harder, faster.

Back by the car, a man pounced on Ana’s father. Ashby struck out with a Stinger, but the guy dodged aside, slammed Ashby in the stomach and followed it up with a hard blow to the back. Her father fell to his knees, winded.

Ana’s heart thundered in her chest. Even Dombrant wouldn’t be able to hold off four of these guys. They were no ordinary Wardens or police officers.

Across the field, Cole veered inland from the M25 towards a forest, while the three men reached Dombrant. Two of them closed in on the Warden, the other continued after Cole. With a sharp flick of his knife Dombrant threw a low blade at the man who’d gone for Cole. The man cried out and fell to the ground, grasping his calf. Another assailant lunged at the Warden with a pitch-fork baton. Dombrant swivelled just in time and jabbed out his Stinger. The man parried the Stinger with his baton. The men jerked apart, both receiving an electric shock. Then a gunshot sounded.

The third man sauntered forwards. Ana couldn’t make out his words, but the silver pistol glinting in his hand said it all. The fight was over. Dombrant dropped his weapons, raised his arms. The man who he’d caught with his knife staggered up to them, blood pouring from his calf. He said something to Dombrant, then struck the heel of his weapon into Dombrant’s face. A crack split the air.

Ana craned up to see Dombrant cupping his bloody nose. The man who had attacked with the pitch-fork baton crouched down beside the Warden and pressed a knife to his throat.

‘Where’s the girl?’ he said. His words were blanketed by the wind, but as Ana deciphered them, she threw herself down, flattening her body against the earth. Her chest burnt. She couldn’t hear Dombrant’s answer, only the howling of the wind. When she dared to peek again they were muscling the Warden into their car. Her father was on his feet, rubbing his injuries. She thought she heard him say Cole’s name. Not daring to move, she bit her knuckles hard, hoping furiously that Cole had reached the woods.

*

She lay perfectly still for over half an hour. The men took both cars and drove them across the field towards the trees. Two of them searched for Cole, the other two, including the man who’d been stabbed, stayed with her father and Dombrant. Occasionally, Ana heard the muffled voices of those who’d remained, but she couldn’t make out who was talking. All she could think, over and over, was
please don’t catch Cole. Please don’t catch Cole.

Eventually, the two men returned. She squinted up to see if they had Cole and almost groaned in relief. Car doors slammed. Tyres squealed. The saloon and the four by four bounced over the edge of the slope onto the motorway. As they sped away, Ana pulled herself up, legs and arms trembling. She staggered across the rutted field towards the woods. Afternoon sunshine warmed her back. Fields and pockets of woodland stretched on for miles, the motorway an ugly cut in the land.

It all felt surreal. Four men had snatched her father and the Warden Dombrant, leaving her in the middle of nowhere, searching for Cole.

She stumbled towards tall trees. And there he was, haloed by the sun. She ran down the slope onto the country lane that divided the field from the woods and flung herself at him. He held onto her tightly. Her body trembled worse than ever; it was like her nerves had finally snapped. He shook his head, clutched her face in his hands, kissed her, shook his head again.

‘Jeez,’ he murmured. ‘Much more of this and I’ll have a heart attack before I’m thirty.’

‘I’m sorry I ran,’ she said.

‘Quite frankly, I’m glad you did.’ Cole sounded cool, but she noticed his hands were shaking too.

‘Who were they?’ she asked.

‘The Board’s Special Ops. I saw the gold triangle with the white circle on their jackets.’

Ana’s hand shot up to her mouth. Had the Chairman already discovered they were responsible for the Three Mills break-in? How had she found them so fast?

Cole let her go. He switched on an interface Ana hadn’t seen before.

‘Where did you get that?’

‘The Warden threw it at me when the Special Ops turned up.’

‘He’ll use it to find us.’

‘He left the scrambling tracker on.’

Ana grew quiet. Dombrant and her father had done everything they could to facilitate her and Cole’s escape from the Board’s Special Ops. The Special Ops had been looking for Ana, but even at knife point, the Warden hadn’t given her up. Her father was trying to protect them, even though she was busy destroying his life’s work. Maybe the truth about her mother’s death had finally opened his eyes.

‘Bricket Wood rail station’s only two miles from here,’ Cole said. ‘We’ll stay off the roads, stick to the fields and the trees.’

They hurried to the cover of the forest then, remembering Cole’s injured knee, Ana purposefully slowed their pace. Speckled light danced in branches high above them. When they could no longer see road or fields, Cole guided them using a satellite tracking program he’d pulled up on the net.

After half an hour, Ana suggested they rest. She searched around for a branch Cole could use as a walking stick, while he sat on a tree stump and checked his messages.

‘How’s this?’ she asked, returning with a sturdy, five-foot stick.

‘Looks good, thanks,’ he said, distracted.

‘What is it?’

‘There’s another message from Lila. She’s at the Wetlands.’

‘The Wetlands! How?’

‘No idea,’ Cole clenched his jaw. ‘Seton made a big point about no one knowing the hideout’s location. Why would he tell her?’

‘They must have seen the video of Three Mills.’

‘Yeah. But she wasn’t supposed to have access to the net for another couple of days. And it doesn’t explain why Seton would risk letting her come to the City to find us.’

There’s more to it
, Ana thought. Seton and Clemence knew her father, the Board and the Wardens were all searching for Ana and Cole. They wouldn’t have encouraged Lila to come without a reason. Something big.

The thread that had been corkscrewing tighter and tighter in her all day, turned another notch.

21

Tengeri

It was late afternoon when they reached the Wetlands. As they approached the observation tower, Ana found a stick in the undergrowth and held it clenched in both fists. Cole raised his eyebrows at her, but she noticed his fingers tighten around his own walking stick.

The door to the octagonal building stood open. Inside the tower, daylight shafted through the high slit windows. There was no sign of anyone, or of the place having been disturbed since they’d left it yesterday. She looked at the floorboards. With the camping rucksack and all their food still in storage at Liverpool Street Station, the stash of goods they’d left here would help see them through the night.

Wood creaked overhead. Cole caught Ana’s eye with a warning look. Despite that they were supposed to be meeting Lila, he was just as on edge as she was.

Feet clomped across the floor above. The stairs shook. Whoever was up there was on their way down. Through the open slatted stairs, Ana saw a dark-clad figure descending. Tight black bodice. Straight black hair.

‘Lila?’ Cole said.

‘Cole?’

She galloped down the stairs, but when she saw her brother she jerked to a halt. Her face transformed from joy to fear.

‘It’s me,’ he said. ‘We had face implants.’

She stared at him a moment, then slunk down the last few steps. They stood face to face. She studied him from the first step; the extra inches meant she didn’t have to strain so much to look up at him. After a moment she reached out and prodded his chin, then his bulging forehead. A nervous laughed escaped her. Her gaze crossed to Ana, eyes wide.

‘I could have passed you on the street and I wouldn’t have recognised either of you,’ she said.

Cole smiled and pulled her into his arms. Once she was in his familiar embrace, her whole body relaxed. Then she let go of her brother and hugged Ana.

‘Was it you?’ she asked. ‘Was it you in Three Mills?’

‘What are you doing here?’ Cole asked, cutting across her question. ‘Who came with you?’

‘I did.’

Ana and Cole turned to see Clemence standing in the doorway, bright eyes glinting. A strip of sunlight illuminated the side of her face. The same uneasy sensation Ana had the first time she met Clemence wound its way through her again now.

Cole looked surprised. ‘You shouldn’t have brought Lila.’

‘It’s hardly on the same scale as the dangerous things you two have been doing,’ Lila protested. ‘The Three Mills video is everywhere. People are going wild. There’s been a small riot in the centre of the City. That abducted Pure girl was whisked off to hospital. They’ve found her parents. They’ve already started closing down the institution.’

Ana’s knees wobbled. Tamsin was safe.
Thank goodness.

‘Ana?’ Cole said, reaching out to steady her.

‘I think I need to eat something.’

Clemence gave Ana and Cole home-made soup still warm from a flask they’d brought with them. They drank while Lila told them all about the Project evacuation, then described in detail the leaky farmhouse she, Simone, Rafferty and others were staying in, along with several tents pitched in a nearby field because they couldn’t all fit in the house and surrounding barns.

As they sipped their soup, Ana began to feel steadier again. She watched Clemence more closely. Cole was observing her too. Eventually, Clemence asked if Lila would mind fetching them some water from the marshes so they could make tea.

‘So why are you really here?’ Cole asked, when it was just the three of them.

‘Tengeri wants permission to speak to Ana,’ she said.

For a moment, Ana had no idea who Clemence was talking about. Then she realised: Tengeri was the Nganasan shaman. An odd frisson of anticipation ran through her.

Cole’s face became inscrutable; a hard blank wall.

‘Is he here?’ she asked, dubiously.

‘No,’ Clemence said.

‘But how . . .’ Ana broke off. Weeks ago, Lila had told Ana about Cole’s Glimpse. She’d claimed that while Cole was sleeping, the shaman had helped him enter a spiritual plane by showing him a door. When Cole walked through the door it was like he’d walked into the future.

Ana folded her arms. ‘He wants to speak to me through my dreams?’ she asked sceptically. Clemence nodded. Ana looked at Cole. His face was red and tense. His reaction surprised her. He’d spoken very little about his Glimpse, but she’d always thought it had been an incredible experience. Unsettling and strange, yes. But mostly extraordinary. Uncertain of how she felt, she walked over to the alarm. It was beeping gently, triggered by Clemence and Lila’s arrival. She reset it the way Seton had shown her. She felt the Project Minister watching her. Clemence’s energy intrigued Ana as much as it unnerved her. A part of her wanted to know what Tengeri, the man that people in the Project put all their trust in, was like. Did he really have a strange power, or was he simply a skilled magician? Could he find her in her dreams?