The System Read Online Free PDF

to tell him exactly where they were in this place called Paris, or what else was in this building, but as soon as he asked her questions she was able to answer, she got super excited, rattling off a million facts about aubergines, about modern farming, about nutritional values and health measurement. She’d also told him the history of Paris, about how it had been a cultural centre before collapsing in the early twenty-first century, and how Infotec had rescued it, moving their head offices there when London had been destroyed, rejuvenating this great City and turning it into the capital of Europe. In many ways, capital of the world, now that there were no language barriers.
    ‘That’s what Infotec has programmed you to say, right?’ Raffy had asked, his left eyebrow raised pointedly.
    ‘That is fact.’ Cassandra had pouted. ‘It’s in the history books. On Infopedia. I don’t know why you’re so suspicious of everything. There’s no need for suspicion anymore because everything is out in the open. There are no secrets, no closed doors.’
    ‘The door to this apartment is pretty closed,’ Raffy had retorted, after which Cassandra had gone silent for a bit.
    It had taken Raffy a while to get used to talking to a computer. But now, as he sat at the table, eating on his own, just like he always did, he was almost tempted to open up a hologram and have her sit on the table to keep him company. Evie had worked out some kind of rota so that she ate whilst he was working, then disappeared into her room when he ate, so the only time he ever saw her was through the glass door of his cubicle. He would watch her lying on the sofa, looking at the various screens, her nose wrinkled in irritation, or pacing around the apartment, gazing mournfully towards the opaque windows. And every time he saw her he longed to rush out, to tell her how much he hated himself, how sorry he was, how determined he was to make things right. But he didn’t; he knew the look of scorn that he would be greeted with, knew that she would regard him coldly before walking away. And she’d be right to. What use were words? If he was sorry, he had to prove it. If he wanted to redeem himself, then he’d have to find a way.
    Which would also mean finding a way out of this prison.
    He looked over at Linus’s cubicle, contemplated trying to talk to him, find out if he was plotting anything, if he knew anything Raffy didn’t know. But he knew there was no point. Linus knew nothing. There was nothing to know. They simply had a choice: deliver the System or die. Probably painfully. Almost certainly after watching Evie being tortured. And now that Benjamin was gone, that threat was even more pressing.
    Of course, to Linus there was no choice; he would choose the latter every time. And he’d be right to. The System would destroy lives, just as it had done in the City. The System was evil; it could not be recreated.
    Raffy knew all this. He knew that Evie would hate him if he even tried, that if she was going to love him again he had to show her that he had changed, that he could be noble and self-sacrificing and team-spirited.
    But he also knew that he’d do anything to keep her safe. Even build Thomas his System.
    Heavily, he picked up his fork and started to eat.

4
    ‘So you like Frankie, do you?’ The door opened suddenly and Raffy swung round to see Milo striding towards him, his glossy hair pushed to the side, his eyes and teeth shining as they always did, his dark suit and white shirt hanging beautifully off his broad shoulders.
    ‘I was just …’ Raffy started to say, awkward suddenly. It had been Cassandra’s idea for him to watch Frankie; his computer had insisted that through Frankie he would learn all he needed to about the world. And since the alternative was desperately watching Evie every time he was able to glimpse her through his glass door, he’d reluctantly agreed. And actually Frankie was almost diverting in her own way. But she