The Fall (2 page)

The air grew cooler and the light against her blindfold darkened. A smell of earth and leaves filled her nostrils. Ahead of her, one of the guards beat a path through the overgrowth. Thorns caught her robe as the man who’d been holding her elbow now pulled at her wrist. They stopped. The hand let go. Someone tugged at the knot against the back of her head and the tie came undone. Bursts of light popped in her eyes as her vision returned. They were standing at an intersection of two paths in the middle of a wood. Tall sycamore trees, holly bushes and an ancient oak surrounded them. The dark-haired man held out her dressing gown belt.

‘Thanks,’ she murmured, dropping her gaze to fasten the tie around her waist. He nodded.

They began walking again, following one of the paths. Ana became aware of other sounds creeping into the forest – scrubbing noises, water splashing, the clatter of people moving about. Beyond a sprawling hawthorn, she caught sight of a barn with wattled walls and a turf and straw roof. A large pen of wooden spikes enclosed the building and a noxious odour of animal dung clawed the air. She stared through the open barn doors. She’d seen hens and rabbits and cows before, but never a live sheep or pig.

As they continued, passing sheds of corrugated metal, long single-storey cabins with moss-covered roofs appeared between the gaps. Her stomach rolled, nerves and curiosity bubbling to the surface. She’d heard endless stories of abductions, brainwashing and mind-control supposedly taking place in the medieval-type settlement which lay just beyond her home – now she was about to enter the heart of it.

They reached a path that forked out towards the woods and in between the longhouses. Blaize sidled up close beside her. The dark-haired guard took up the other side, locking his arm through hers.

‘Keep your head down,’ he said, as the men began to pull her forwards.

Longhouses branched off on either side, like the nerves attached to a spine. Narrow passages lay between the buildings, covered with canvas canopies to protect from the sun and the rain. They reached a small square with picnic tables, an open-air kitchen and a brick bungalow at its centre. The smell of bonfire and burning spices wafted beneath awnings strung over metal frames above the tables. Half a dozen people worked around the kitchen fires: chopping, washing, mixing. The guards hurried Ana through a side door into the brick building.

‘Stay here,’ the dark-haired guard instructed.

She blinked as her eyes adjusted to the dark interior. A moment later she was alone in the large assembly hall. Cool stone walls leaned in lopsidedly towards the roof. Thousands of neatly fitted stones pebbled the ground. At the far end, beneath a platform, stood a table hewn from a tree trunk. A dozen wooden chairs surrounded the table and on either side a tube of sunlight shafted down through the ceiling beams.

Her curiosity soured to dread. If Cole wasn’t here, what would they do to her?

A clunking sound came from the double doors in the centre of the hall. The doors scraped open and a well-built man of about forty entered. He wore the green combat trousers and black T-shirt of the guards. Behind him in the square, a crowd was gathering, their murmurs hushed as they peered into the hall.

The man closed the door and strode to the table. He poured two cups of water from a pitcher, then came back and stood before her, not five feet between them. A hard line creased his brow as he frowned. His head was shaved to conceal his widow’s peak.

Her hands began to shake.

‘I’m Tobias, Chief of Security,’ he said, holding out one of the cups to her. After a moment, she took the cup and clasped it without sipping. He gulped back his water. ‘I’ve been Chief of Security for twelve years,’ he said, ‘and in all that time no one’s ever come over the wall.’

Twelve years.
He must know Cole. She looked down. Now she would find out whether Cole had made it there, or not. The fear raked deep inside her. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I didn’t know how else I was supposed to get in.’

 ‘You weren’t,’ Tobias said. He stared at her. She struggled to meet his eyes.

Something thumped against the side entrance. Ana flinched. The door swung open and a six-foot figure stalked in.

‘Cole?’ she whispered.

‘Where is she?’ he demanded, sweeping across the dim interior.

Her mind was swimming. She could only see snatches of him. Dark stubble. Skin grey with exhaustion. Dazzling blue eyes. And then time jumped and he was pulling her towards him.

All at once the smell of summer and freshly-cut grass enveloped her. He was gravity and finally she could stop spinning. The relief was overwhelming. She sank into his arms. Three weeks of hoping he was safe and wondering if she would ever see him again had felt like months. Endless days of pretending she was happy at Jasper’s, of waking from nightmares and aching for his touch, were over. She breathed him in, wishing she could stay just like that forever.

The Council

Tobias retreated to the main doors. Pressed against Cole’s shirt, Ana heard the Chief of Security speak in low tones to someone outside. Then there were footsteps leaving, and she and Cole were alone. Her face was itchy and hot. She withdrew, wiping the tear smudges from her cheeks. Cole studied her, eyes the colour of sky reflected in ice.

‘Ana . . .’ His deep voice was warm and amazed. But something else too. A tingling spread out from the centre of her chest.

‘Yes?’

He took a step away. ‘The rest of the council will be here in a minute.’ He spoke calmly, but tension lurked behind the smoothness. ‘Let me do the talking, OK?’

Too nervous to speak, she nodded in agreement.

He smiled. ‘Don’t worry, it’ll be OK.’ He raised a hand to cup her cheek. She leaned forward, hoping he was going to kiss her, but he pulled away and at the same moment Tobias returned, followed by a tall, slim woman and a man in his sixties.

The woman came to Ana first and took her hand, holding it delicately between her own. ‘I’m Clemence,’ she said. ‘Minister of the Project.’ Her eyes glittered like the fine sequined scarf around her waist. It was as though light blazed behind them. A frisson of something Ana didn’t quite understand, or like, rippled through her.
Minister
. Ana knew the Project was religious. Cole’s sister, Lila, was an ardent believer, but Ana could sense a hidden power in Clemence. Whether it existed or whether she was imagining it, didn’t matter. It made Ana uneasy. She removed her palm from Clemence’s hold.

The bald man held out his arm. ‘Seton Hall,’ he said. ‘Head of Logistics.’

‘Ana,’ she answered, shaking hands quickly.

‘Ana,’ Seton said. ‘Why don’t you sit down?’ He strode to the table and pulled out a chair.

‘Blaize and Mikey found her near the north wall,’ Tobias began. ‘Apparently she climbed over from the Highgate Community looking for Cole.’

The Minister’s eyes shot from Ana to Cole. Cole put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Her legs felt like they were filling up with concrete.

‘Why don’t you sit?’ Seton repeated. His voice carried authority. She crossed to the chair and perched, feeling at a disadvantage because everyone else remained standing. Cole moved in behind her.

‘Ana,’ Seton said. ‘As you seem to be fully aware of who we are and where you are, perhaps you’re also aware that we rarely accept newcomers into the Project. Why don’t you explain to us why you’re here?’

His words shook her. For weeks she’d been worrying about the Project taking her captive, never letting her go, but it seemed they might not even let her stay. She glanced back at Cole.

‘Ana,’ Cole said, ‘has been like a hostage in her father’s home. On the night of her joining several weeks ago, she wished to leave her Community, but she stayed to protect me and my sister. I told her to meet us here as soon as she could get away.’ He was twisting the truth a little, taking the blame for her arrival.

‘I don’t believe it.’ Tobias threw up his arms. ‘Now I know why she looks familiar. She’s Ashby Barber’s daughter. Are you out of your mind?’

‘Enough,’ Seton said. ‘Tobias, you’ll have your chance to make a formal Decline when we put her request to the representatives.’

‘We can’t possibly consider giving shelter to Ariana Barber,’ Tobias argued. ‘It will endanger the Project. Wardens will come looking for her.’

Ana sat up straighter. In her mind, she’d planned to leave the Project with Cole as soon as possible, sell her jewellery and use the money to travel north. She’d hoped they would find some remote town to settle in for a year or two, until her father gave up trying to find her and the Wardens stopped searching for Cole – since he was currently prime suspect in the murder of the minister Peter Reed. But they needed time to organise a safe getaway. Their faces had been on too many news reports for either of them to wander freely around the City.

‘The Wardens,’ Cole said, ‘won’t come searching for Ana because her father won’t want the Board to know she’s run off. He won’t report it.’

‘Dr Barber isn’t just the face of the Pure Separation Survival Campaign,’ Tobias responded scathingly. ‘He’s deeply implicated in under-the-radar government stuff. He’s been linked to the Joint Intelligence Committee and what remains of the Secret Service. He doesn’t need the Board’s approval or an official Warden search to send people after her.’

Ana scrutinised Tobias. He was strong, angry, possibly explosive, but he was clearly driven by a need to keep those under his protection safe. And he was right. Her father had always been vague about what he did for the government in terms of upholding the security of the Pure Communities. It wouldn’t shock her to learn he was part of the Secret Service, or running some elite security agency that lay outside the general authority of the Wardens.

‘Her request will be put to the representatives and we’ll vote on it,’ Clemence said. ‘Just as we always do.’

Clemence was watching Ana intently, like she could probe her mind. Ana’s breathing grew heavier. Keeping a neutral expression, she stared back. She wouldn’t give the Minister any insight into her feelings. Cole might have spent half his childhood in the Project, but she didn’t trust these people.

‘The situation is unprecedented,’ Tobias said. ‘There is no
always
about it. She isn’t some low-level Novastra employee who wants out.’

‘I take it you will stand for a formal Acceptance?’ Seton asked Clemence. She bowed her head in a nod.

‘Well in that case, perhaps you’d like to take Ana to get changed before she meets the representatives.’

Ana swallowed hard. As she stood, Cole’s hand came to rest gently on her spine. His touch sent a warm flush through her body. Clemence glided towards the side door and they followed.

‘Cole,’ Seton called out, when they were halfway across the hall. ‘I want to talk to you.’

Ana’s heartbeat quickened. The pulse in her wrists began to throb.

‘You’ll be fine,’ he murmured, letting his hand drop from her back.

She bit the inside of her cheek. She didn’t want to be fine. She wanted to be with
him
. There was so much to say. They needed to make plans. She needed reassurance that coming here wasn’t a mistake. That he intended to leave with her when the time came.

‘It’s all right,’ he said. But his voice lacked conviction.

*

The Minister guided Ana through a maze of narrow passages between the bungalows. To Ana’s untrained eye, the only things that distinguished one longhouse from another were the colourful canvasses stretched over the walkways, beating back the late afternoon sun. It was late spring, but the last two weeks had been as hot and humid as summer.

She nervously followed Clemence downhill, not thrilled about being alone with the Minister. The heathland sloped. The steps up to wicker doors grew larger and the banks of mud on the higher side of the walkways taller. Clemence’s cabin lay on the edge of the settlement in what appeared to be an outer ring of small huts. Two wooden torches marked either side of her doorway. Several women carrying young children lingered by the entrance. They abruptly stopped talking when they saw Ana. Even the crying infant fell silent.

‘I’ll be with you shortly,’ Clemence told the ladies. Ana could feel them staring as she followed Clemence into the cabin.

 ‘Is it true?’ One of them called, as the Minister closed the wattle door.

 ‘Is what true?’ Ana asked.

‘That you climbed over the wall,’ Clemence said, her captivating eyes smiling in amusement.

Ana flushed with annoyance. How else was she supposed to have entered the Project? A ten-foot wall with metal spikes and barbed wire ran for miles around the heathland, and the gate, if there was one, was hidden.

‘Now,’ Clemence said, crossing the hut and folding back the end panel of a room divider. She vanished behind a wall of twigs and straw entwined around heavy wood frames.

Ana breathed in the faint smell of jasmine and scanned Clemence’s home. Beside the room divider stood a ladder. It stretched up to a bed on stilts that almost touched the ceiling. A low wooden table and three rocking chairs piled with cushions sat around an unlit hearth. There was a large chest of drawers in one corner and a small table below one of the windows with a vase of white hawthorn. Everything looked natural, hand built. Even the wall rugs and decorative cushions appeared to be dyed with flowers or berries.

Clemence returned with a flowing skirt and yellow blouse. Ana looked at the clothes unenthusiastically. In her Community, girls of a ‘certain age’ always wore dresses or skirts rather than trousers, but she didn’t want the representatives to perceive her as some naïve Pure girl, incapable of taking care of herself.

‘What’s the matter?’

‘I’d be more comfortable in trousers,’ she said. ‘If that’s an option?’

Clemence smiled. ‘Of course.’ She returned to the back room and soon came out with a pair of loose black trousers and a plain blouse. ‘I’m a little taller than you, but you can roll up the bottoms.’

‘Thank you.’

Clemence handed Ana the clothes. ‘That’s a big diamond,’ she said as their fingers touched. Ana blushed. She’d forgotten she was still wearing her joining ring. Had Cole noticed? She eased it off her finger.