The Disappearances

by Gemma Malley

  Thomas laughed. ‘I thought you’d like that. But really, you have no idea. No idea at all, Linus. You’ve got no idea what you’re in for. What I’m going to show you. You’re going to be amazed. Truly astounded.’

  ‘I bet,’ Linus said, quietly.

  Benjamin turned to him. ‘You’re not really going, are you? We can overpower this freak. We can fight.’

  ‘No we can’t,’ Linus said flatly. ‘Not any more. He’s destroyed the Settlement. He’ll destroy the City. He’ll destroy everything. He looked at Thomas. ‘But if I come with you, everyone else goes free. You leave them alone. Leave it all alone. Do you understand?’

  Thomas looked at him for a moment, then he shrugged. ‘Whatever you say.’

  ‘And I need my computers,’ Linus said, looking around. ‘I’ll need them all.’

  Thomas smiled. ‘Of course. My men will bring them all.’

  Linus nodded, stood up, walked towards his computer. ‘I’ll just get it all ready,’ he said, beginning to unplug machines, fold up laptops. As he did so, Evie noticed him take something out of the side of one of them; he glanced over at her then, and as he walked around to disconnect another machine, he dropped it just next to Lucas’s hand. He immediately moved his hand to cover it, manoeuvred it into his pocket without Thomas seeing.

  Thomas turned to Benjamin. ‘Wish you were still working for me, Devil?’ he asked, his eyes glinting.

  Benjamin didn’t answer; he just stared straight ahead.

  ‘No,’ Thomas said thoughtfully. ‘No, well, I suppose we can’t all be visionaries.’ He stood up. ‘Okay, I’m done,’ he said, looking at Linus. ‘Let’s go.

  Linus got to his feet. ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘But let me say goodbye to my friends.’

  Thomas pulled a face. ‘You know what?’ he said. ‘I don’t think that’s actually going to be possible to leave them here after all. I’ve developed a real hatred of loose ends. We will all get onto the chopper and your friends will … Well, we’ll think of something. Something painless.’

  ‘You said I could leave with Evie,’ Raffy stared at him angrily.

  Thomas shrugged. ‘I lied.’

  Linus’s eyes hardened. ‘You want me, you leave everyone else. That’s the deal.’

  ‘How about you cooperate or I’ll kill them all. That’s a better deal, I think,’ Thomas said smoothly as Benjamin’s grip tightened around Raffy, this time to stop him hurling himself at Thomas.

  Linus held his gaze for a few seconds. ‘Seems you’ve got me,’ he said eventually.

  ‘Yes,’ Thomas smiled. ‘Yes, I have. So, shall we go?’

  Linus nodded heavily and started to walk, but as he brushed past Lucas he whispered something, so quietly no one noticed except for Evie, who was right behind him.

  She saw his hand reach back and she took it; as he pulled her towards him he murmured in her ear, ‘At the drop, we turn left, not right.’ And she didn’t know exactly what he meant, but she nodded earnestly, pretending to stumble so that Benjamin would help her up and she could convey the same message to him.

  They walked, Linus at the front, then Lucas, Evie, Benjamin, Thomas, and Raffy at the back. And then they were at the cave’s exit. Linus turned right. Lucas turned left and immediately disappeared. Evie followed him but before she could take another step she felt a hand gripping her. ‘No. No!’ It was Raffy, leaping forward to grab her; she pushed at him, screamed for him to let go, but it was too late. Thomas was beside her, his face white with rage.

  ‘Get up here,’ he shouted to his men, who were now visible at the mouth of the cave. ‘Get up here and get these prisoners onto the chopper.’

  ‘No,’ Evie cried out as several armed men descended and started to drag them out. ‘Where’s Lucas? Where is he?’

  ‘He’s safe,’ Linus called out to her, the noise from the helicopter almost drowning him out, his arm reaching out to her as he was bundled towards the strange, scary flying machine, as Evie herself was pulled towards it. ‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Evie …’

  Epilogue

  Lucas took a deep breath and surveyed the woman sitting opposite him. Amy Jenkins. She was the first person to get an interview with him after he’d returned to the City, broken, battered, but knowing that with Clara at his side, he had to appear strong, had to appear to be triumphant. Martha had wanted to keep him at Base Camp for a few days, to nurse him back to health, but he’d refused. Having run all the way there from Linus’s cave, he had eaten just one meal before setting off again, with Clara, to return to the City.

  It was a triumphant return; after a brief spell in prison, accused of murder and worse, Clara’s testimony had led to his release, then Linus’s recording of everything Thomas had said about the City, about the Brother, had led to the Brother’s own incarceration; when the memory stick Linus had dropped next to him was played in the Meeting House to a stunned silence, all of Lucas’s former doubters had sobbed in regret.

  Of course, they only saw part of the recording, the part that Angel had edited for him; Lucas didn’t want to take all hope away from the City’s people, didn’t want them to be filled with anger like he was.

  Amy was smiling at him. His last interview with her felt like so long ago. A lifetime ago.

  Now things were very different.

  No more search parties were roaming the streets of the City; instead, crowds were gathered outside his offices, braying for the Brother’s blood. Now he was met only by humble, apologetic faces, by men and women asking to shake his hand. Now, finally, people were beginning to embrace their freedoms, beginning to finally shake themselves free of the Brother’s doctrines, of his grip on their minds and hearts.

  And Lucas tried to be happy for them, tried to feel pleasure in the fact that he had finally achieved what he’d set out to do. But instead he was battling a constant fog of nihilism. Because the City had not been created from the ashes, but through design. Because it was not a beacon of survival, but the creation of a madman, a game, a project.

  And because Evie was with that madman, away from Lucas, a lifetime away.

  ‘None of us believed you,’ Amy said. ‘And yet now we realise just how wrong we were to doubt you.’

  Lucas nodded, trying hard to focus, trying to push everything else out, for now at least.

  ‘What you have to remember,’ he said, his right hand moving inadvertently to his left wrist, ‘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. Just as the Brother was corrupt. He is responsible for what happened, for manipulating the people of the City to believe him and not me. No one should blame themselves. We need to look forwards, not backwards. We have to start living. I want us to start living again.’

  He said the words, but he wasn’t sure how he kept a straight face. He knew nothing of living. Not any more. Not since Thomas had taken Evie, not since he’d turned left at the cave’s exit to find himself spinning down a tunnel to the ground below, unable to turn back, unable to respond to Evie’s cries. He had tried scrabbling up; had shouted, screamed, ripped his hands to shreds trying to get to her, to all of them, but it had been no use. He’d had to watch as she was taken away, taken off in the helicopter with Linus, Raffy and Benjamin. Taken to a world that was meant to have been blown up. Taken to a world that Lucas still couldn’t comprehend, no matter how hard he tried.

  Had Linus known that he alone would make it? He didn’t know, but he had his suspicions. Suspicions that kept him awake at night, that filled his head with feverish thoughts, questions. Was that why Linus had given Lucas the memory stick, the recording of Thomas revealing everything to them: his involvement in the Disappearances, the Horrors; the Brother’s treachery? Was that why Linus had made sure that Lucas was right behind him? He didn’t know; all he knew was that he was empty inside, that he would remain empty until he saw her again.

  ‘So what,’ Amy said, her
eyes narrowing, ‘would you suggest as a suitable punishment for the Brother? People are calling for his death; after all, he enabled the brutal murder of the Disappeared.’

  Lucas closed his eyes for a few seconds, then opened them again, stood up and walked to the window, large and broad. He had considered a new office, a new building, a new start. But in the end he had settled for a new window. A large window that allowed him to see the sky.

  ‘I think we can find a suitable punishment,’ he said quietly. ‘I intend to gather a jury of citizens, men and women of this City, to determine whether he be imprisoned within the City or exiled from it. The people will decide. It was the people that he betrayed, after all.’

  ‘And what else do you have in store for the City?’ Amy asked then.

  Lucas thought for a moment, then turned around to look at her. She had no idea that this was all a sham, just like everyone else in this country had no idea that they’d been duped, used, their lives destroyed. And all for a computer system.

  ‘Peace,’ he said eventually. Because they didn’t need to know. Not yet, anyway. Not when they’d already suffered so much. ‘Peace and prosperity for the City’s people. Hard work. Resilience. Humour. Fun. Love. I want people to be free to enjoy the small things, the big things, free to talk, free to disagree with each other, with me; free to take pleasure in the world again. I want to lower our walls, to engage with the other communities around us. I want us to stop being afraid.’

  Amy scribbled furiously, then she looked up at Lucas, cocked her head to one side. ‘And you?’ she asked. ‘Will you find peace, do you think? After everything that’s happened?’

  Lucas looked at her and his eyes were drawn to his desk, behind her. Over on his computer he could see a message flashing up for him, a message that could only be from one person, a message that reminded him of the years he spent sending and receiving messages to and from Linus, not knowing who he was or where he lived, just that his father trusted him and that he must, too. Now they were using the same device to communicate again; no words yet, just a signal, to let Lucas know that they were alive, that things were okay. Five seconds later, it disappeared to be replaced by his screensaver, a picture of Clara celebrating her sixteenth birthday two weeks before, her parents’ faces radiant, their loved one returned. To remind him that his fight had been worthwhile, for her family at least. To remind himself that people came back. That Evie would come back. That he would find her again, one day …

  Lucas took a deep breath, then forced himself to smile.

  ‘I can hope,’ he said. ‘I can always hope …’

  END OF BOOK TWO

  Acknowledgements

  Thank you, as ever, to Kate Howard, my editor, and everyone at Hodder who has worked so hard to bring this series to life, especially Eleni Lawrence and Justine Taylor.

  Thank you to Dorie Simmonds, my wonderful agent. And huge thanks to Alan Greenspan, whose thoughts and ideas prompted a major rewrite of this book, for the better, I hope …!

  And finally thank you to all of you who find the time to get in touch and spur me on. I couldn’t do it without you!

  Reading Group Guide

  Meet Gemma Malley …

  ‘So, where to begin? School? Hmmm. School was okay. Great in some ways, not so great in others. I’m someone who likes to do things my own way, rather than following rules and that’s not so easy in the regimen of the class-room. But I loved English – I had a wonderful teacher, Miss Pitt, who got me super excited about Chaucer. I really looked forward to those lessons.

  Then university. I studied Philosophy, which I loved too – it’s basically about arguing your point. Not just arguing your point; it’s about challenging assumptions, asking difficult questions, having to come up with cogent reasons for things you’ve always just ‘known’ to be true. And I joined a band, too. Lots of fun. We toured Japan, toured France, had an album in the in die charts … I edited the university newspaper, too. If you want to write, I always say that the best thing to do is … write. Don’t talk about it, just do it, and if you wind up writing about something that doesn’t entirely fascinate you then great – writing is hard and you have to work at it. My first job in journalism was writing about pensions – if you can make them interesting, you can make pretty much anything interesting. Going for the hard option is often the best way to learn in my opinion.

  So anyway, that’s a bit about me. But you’re probably not really that interested in what I got up to years ago. Maybe you’re more interested in why I wrote my books? If you are, read on …’

  Which children’s authors most inspire you?

  My favourite children’s authors are those who, in my opinion, make the most of the genre with great story-telling, extensive imagination, and who aren’t afraid to tackle difficult and complicated subjects. Philip Pullman is certainly one, as are Meg Rosoff, Jennifer Donnelly and Jacqueline Wilson. I think that Oscar Wilde’s fairy tales are also absolutely wonderful.

  Do you have any particular habits or rituals when you write?

  I don’t have too many rituals when it comes to writing — I sit looking out into the garden, which is lovely and I can’t even start thinking about writing until I’ve had a cup of hot, steaming tea. Other than that, I try to clear my mind completely, think about my characters, and then write as much as I can before my next tea break!

  What career path would you have taken, if you hadn’t become an author?

  I’d like to say an astronaut or an adventurer, but I think I would have ended up writing in some way — perhaps as a journalist, or perhaps working in education. I might even have become a teacher — I think working with young people and getting them excited in a book, a subject or the world around them is about the most rewarding thing you can do.

  Does it take a long time to write a novel?

  It really depends — it can take weeks, months or even years! Sometimes a book just flows out of you; other times you have to wrench it out.

  What inspired you to choose the dystopian setting?

  I love to think of a utopia – in this case, a world without evil – and turning it on its head, looking for the flip side. Because the truth is, I don’t think that utopia exists. Humans are fallible and that’s what makes life such a roller-coaster ride. I like the ups and downs; without them things would be very dull. And don’t we all appreciate the summer more after a long, cold winter?

  MY TOP TEN DYSTOPIAN FILMS

  1 THE MATRIX

  Just such a brilliant concept and makes you really think about what happiness really means.

  2 NEVER LET ME GO

  A brutal look at our desperation for health and longevity and what we’ll do to achieve it.

  3 1984

  Unlike many film adaptations, this film is almost as good as the book it-self. Utterly haunting.

  4 LOGAN’S RUN

  Life is for pleasure and everyone dies before they’re 30 … Essential viewing for young people everywhere!

  5 BLADE RUNNER

  Dystopia, sci-fi, human drones … My idea of film heaven!

  6 THE TERMINATOR

  I love this film and its sequels. Just the right mix of action, emotion and philosophical/political thought.

  7 METROPOLIS

  A world divided into ‘thinkers’ and ‘workers’ who need each other to survive yet never meet... Made in the1920s but just as relevant now...

  8 A CLOCKWORK ORANGE

  Utterly terrifying but so well made and very convincing.

  9 BRAZIL

  Confirms everything I’ve always hated about bureaucracy...

  10 SLEEPER

  The funniest dystopian film ever made and a warning bell against conformity and following all the rules.

  * * *

  Discover the first book in Gemma Malley’s powerful and gripping dystopian series

  THE KILLABLES

  Everyone accepted that people were different physically.

  But inside?

  Inside,
they were different too.

  You just had to know how to tell, what to look for.

  Evil has been eradicated. The City has been established. And citizens may only enter after having the ‘evil’ part of their brain removed. They are labelled on the System according to how ‘good’ they are. If they show signs of the evil emerging, they are labelled a K … But no one knows quite what that means. Only that they disappear, never to be seen again …

  Available now in paperback and eBook

  * * *

  * * *

  Take a look at what some of Gemma’s readers thought about THE KILLABLES:

  ‘The Killables is amazing. The story has an excellent quality which is as soon as you put it down you're itching to pick it up again just so you can know what happens next. Or your mind is reeling at all the different possibilities of what could happen. That's a thing I love to have in certain books because it completely sucks you in and is unbearable to put down.’

  Charlotte Wheeler

  ‘I found The Killables by Gemma Malley very enjoyable and hard to put down … I can’t wait to read Gemma Malley’s next book in the series – The Disappearances. If it’s as good as her first then there’s no doubt I will enjoy it!’

  Amy Langston

  ‘In The Killables, Malley creates a denunciation environment. Although this was not my typical genre of book I would read I found myself gripped after the first page.’

  Bethany Ellis

  ‘I really enjoyed this book as I enjoy dystopian novels. I thought the plot was really clever and I loved the love triangle between Raffy, Evie and Lucas.’

  Darcy Frayne

  ‘The vivid descriptions and debatable morals help this book seem like a realistic and terrifying future for the world. With developments in science and people becoming more corrupt, it doesn’t seem unrealistic that a city would surface, where evil was supposedly eradicated.’