The Vanished Read Online Free PDF Page A

the centre of the door. The plaque was the darkest object in the room with everything else falling somewhere on the spectrum between white and beige.
    Ali pulled back the plastic fringe, and I stepped through to feel a blast of chilly air-conditioning hit me in the face. We had stepped into a ward, a very clean and tidy ward, of about ten patients. I’d never been in hospital before. Dad was the one who treated me when I was sick – he hated hospitals. I immediately felt on edge as though something was wrong. Then I realised the strange thing about the ward – over half of the patients were pregnant women.
    “Excuse me, nurse,” Ali said to a rotund woman in a blue uniform. “We’re looking fer a young boy about sixteen, blond hair––”
    “He’s at the back,” she said, all business with no time for niceties. She picked up a clipboard at the end of a bed and said to the sweaty girl on the bed sheets, “You’re doing really well, Hayley.”
    “It hurts,” the girl said with tears running down her cheeks.
    I looked in her eyes and saw Emily writhing in pain at school. The memory of that day, along with the note of desperation in Hayley’s voice, made me nauseated. Another image flashed in my mind, poor Emily in labour, crying as she is arrested by the Enforcers.
    “Is she in labour?” I said, aghast.
    The nurse laughed. “Yes. Oh, dear, you look about to faint! It’s perfectly natural. One day you will go through this, and you will see that it’s nothing to be afraid of.”
    I realised then that after leaving Area 14 and escaping the Operation, I still hadn’t thought about the consequences. I gulped. “And they have the baby in this room?”
    “No, no. They go through to a private delivery room. We’re short on space, so we have to wait until the last moment. Hayley is a way off yet though.”
    I tried to block the thought of labour out of my mind and instead concentrated on Daniel. We were just feet away from him and my heartbeat quickened. I looked around for Angela, but she wasn’t there. I took a few more steps, my eyes skimming over the bed up to his face, looking for something – I didn’t know what – anything to show that he was going to be all right.
    “Hey,” he said with a smile.
    I reciprocated his smile.
    “It’s good to see you,” he said.
    My hand rose to my necklace. I felt the bulge under my shirt.
    His eyes drifted to Sebastian with a glaze of disappointment. “Good to see you too, Sebastian.”
    “I’m glad you’re all right,” Sebastian replied. He turned to me. “I think I’m gonna go… um…”
    “Check out yer new digs,” Ali added. “I’ve got just the place fer ye.” He clapped Sebastian on the shoulder and they turned to leave but before they did Ali said to me, “When yer ready to find yer dad he’ll be in the barns behind the crèche training the Freaks.”
    “The what?”
    He laughed. “Ye’ll see when ye get there, but before that – nip over te Stevie on the market. He’ll sort ye out some brekky.”
    “Ok,” I said. “Oh, and Ali.”
    “Yeah?”
    “Thanks for all this.”
    “Fer what?”
    “Everything. Helping my friends in Area 14. Taking us to the Council.” I wanted to say treating Sebastian like a human being but I left it alone. “I know that none of this will be your real job, and I just wanted you to know that I’m grateful.”
    “Yer all right, kid.” Ali cleared his throat and turned away.
    I was alone with Daniel, a few nurses and half a dozen pregnant girls. I pulled a chair close to his bed and sat down. “It’s so good to see you, I can’t tell you how…” My cheeks flushed and I stopped myself before everything gushed out. “I’ve been so worried about you.”
    “I’ve been worried about you too.”
    I laughed. “You’re the one with the life threatening injury.” I touched his arm. “How are you?”
    I looked at him, I mean really looked at him, for the first time – he was still pale but there was