The Disappearances Read Online Free PDF Page B

been a year ago. A lifetime ago.
    Now things were very different.
    Now search parties were roaming the streets of the City; crowds were gathered outside his offices, braying for his blood. Now he was met only by angry faces, by desperate pleas. And everyone wanted one thing. The System, reinstated. New Baptisms reintroduced. The Brother. Servility.
    Lucas felt a lump beginning to form in his throat.
    ‘What we have to remember,’ he said, coolly, calmly, giving no indication of the turmoil underneath, ‘is that the System enslaved us. Its judgements were arbitrary, controlled by the Brother to keep people fearful, to separate them, to reward his friends and punish his enemies. It was corrupt.’
    ‘And yet,’ Amy said, her eyes narrowing, ‘the City was a place of safety, of peace. And now our young people are disappearing. Every week another one is snatched from their bed, from the street, never to be seen again. They trusted you; their families trusted you. To keep them safe. To keep the Evils out of the City. But you failed them; you continue to fail them. What do you say to that?’
    Lucas closed his eyes. They were calling them the Disappearances. Boys and girls, all teenagers, all missing. A few weeks ago Jane Anderson, Bill Grainger, Edward Ashleigh, all the others, had been working, eating, sleeping … And then, one by one, they had gone. Six of them in total, disappeared, in a City with huge walls that had been built to protect them all. Disappeared in a City that for years had believed itself rid of evil, safe. Disappeared with no explanation, no clue as to what had happened to them.
    He opened his eyes again, then stood up and walked to the window, a small perfunctory affair that let in enough sunlight but kept out the cold. Utilitarian, like everything else in the City. Lucas had never really noticed until recently how drab everything was, how little beauty there was within the City walls. He’d been too focused on the machinations of its government, on protecting Raffy and Evie, on secretly communicating with his father’s comrade, somewhere outside. But now his brother and Evie were gone; now there was no subterfuge, no living a double life, no more secrets. Lucas had expected to feel better, happier. Instead, he felt empty.
    And now this. Lucas was used to being one step ahead; used to knowing what others didn’t. Now he felt helpless, and helplessness did not sit well on his shoulders.
    ‘We are searching,’ he said. ‘Day and night. We have searched every inch of this City.’
    ‘And yet you haven’t found them,’ Amy said, her voice brittle. ‘My little sister, for instance. She’s been missing for three weeks now. She was at home. I said good night to her and in the morning she was gone. And you say you have search parties? What’s the use of search parties when they can’t find anything? When it’s you, our self-imposed leader, who is doing this to us? Will you be happy when we’ve all gone? Is that what you want?’
    There were tears in her eyes, but Lucas didn’t blink; he just walked towards her. ‘I want the City to be a good place,’ he said simply. ‘A place where people are free to make decisions for themselves, to live without the stigma of labels.’
    ‘To be free to be abducted by Evils?’ Amy asked, her voice strangled with emotion. ‘To be scared to walk down the street alone? To travel around the City only in large groups? To lock every window and press furniture against the door at night-time? Is that what you want for us?’
    Her lips were trembling as she spoke; she reminded Lucas of Evie, with her challenging eyes and refusal to accept anything less than the truth. What would Evie say to him now, he wondered. Would she tell him that he wasn’t doing enough? Would she stare at him angrily, just as Amy was doing, and tell him that until the Disappearances stopped he had failed his people, failed the City? Of course she would. And she’d be right.
    Lucas steeled