A City Called Smoke: The Territory 2 Read Online Free PDF

happens.”

CHAPTER 4
    The figure standing in the middle of the dusty street watched them. The hood of his dark green cloak had been pulled forward, casting most of his face in shadow; the end of his nose and the ginger-tinged beard around his mouth were the only visible features.
    “If you want to go to Big Smoke,” the hood said, “I can help you.”
    Lynn moved her hand as casually as she could, resting it on the hilt of her sword. She hoped she wouldn’t need to draw it again. She had pulled it automatically before, had let her emotions get the better of her, and things had turned dangerous as a result. She needed to stay vigilant. She needed to remember that ghouls weren’t the only dangerous things in the world. Since her father’s murder, since being sent to the Sisters, since their return to the Administrator, through everything that had happened, it had become apparent that the people on the inside of the fence were far more devious than the monsters the fence was meant to keep out.
    “Sorry,” Lynn said. “We’re not interested.”
    The figure reached up and pulled back his hood. The man’s appearance was not what Lynn had expected. He didn’t seem like a shady character, an outlaw or bushranger ready to pray on distracted travellers trying to navigate their way out of the labyrinthine slums. Instead what Lynn saw was a middle-aged man with graying red hair, a curled moustache, raggedly trimmed beard and thick circular glasses.
    “We’re not going to Big Smoke,” Lynn said. “It doesn’t exist.”
    “I heard you before. You’re looking for a weapon against the ghouls.”
    “You must have heard wrong,” said Lynn, turning away. “Come on, Squid.”
    “Let me help you,” the man called. “I know where it is.”
    Squid stopped, turning to look back at the man. Lynn did the same, but only to make sure Squid didn’t get himself in trouble.
    “How do you know where it is?” Squid said.
    “We can’t trust him, Squid,” Lynn said. “Let’s just get out of here.” She knew as well as the next person that there was nothing beyond the fence, no people, no mythical city, nothing but wasteland.
    “My name is Archibald Richmond,” the man said, pushing his glasses up his nose with the end of his finger. “I’m an explorer.”
    “A what?” said Lynn.
    “An explorer,” Archibald said, “someone who has been beyond the fence.”
    “That’s illegal,” Lynn said. “The Holy Order would drag you into the Supreme Court for that. It’s treason to go beyond the fence.”
    “I’ve done it, and I’ve been hiding from the Sisters and the Holy Order ever since. They know what I did and they’ve been searching for me for years. Why do you think I’m here in the slums? I’m an Insider but they would arrest me as soon as I set foot inside the city.”
    “Why did you do it?” Squid asked.
    “Haven’t you ever wondered what’s past the fence? I did it because I wanted to know.”
    “And?” Squid asked, his eyes widening.
    Lynn jumped in before Archibald could answer. “There’s nothing out there. There’s nothing past the fence.”
    “That’s what they want you to think,” Archibald said. “But it’s not the truth.”
    “You’re lying,” Lynn said, feeling a rise of anger as if someone had lit a fire in the pit of her stomach. “My father always told me there’s nothing out there, just wasteland.” There were too many lies in this world, too many things she didn’t understand. She couldn’t believe that something her father had told her, something she took to be a fundamental truth of their world, could possibly be a lie.
    “I’m not lying,” Archibald said, his voice remaining calm. “I met people beyond the fence. There are whole towns out there, other places like the Territory, other colonies.”
    “Stop,” Lynn said. “Just stop lying. I can almost believe in an abandoned city left by the Ancestors, but people living out there? It’s just not