The Glimpse

by Claire Merle

  Cole had turned the situation on its head. Al this time she Cole had turned the situation on its head. Al this time she thought she had been tracking him, when in fact he had been coming after her. Perhaps Lila was in on it too.

  Hadn’t she hinted that Ana was part of some big plan?

  After several random turnings, Ana slackened her pace to a fast stride. Litter strewed the long, quiet road she now walked up. Plastic cups, paper flyers, and bits of orange peel crunched and squashed underfoot. She passed shabby brownstone and whitewashed town houses. The stream of rubbish became a hoary sea, swalowing up the tarmac. Not content to claim the pavements and roads, toilet paper, plastic bottles, food cartons and chocolate wrappings climbed the wals and hedges, and ran through gardens like rivulets. An acidic smel pervaded the air, growing stronger as Ana pushed on. There was something not right about the place.

  Not only were there no pedestrians and no cyclists, but there were also no parked cars. This was the first City street she’d been into without encountering the neglected 159

  or recycled vehicles. There were no shanty shelters either, and no tents erected in the gardens.

  She ground to a halt. Her body resisted entering any deeper into the oppressive emptiness. From a high window, a distant drumbeat broke the silence. She looked up. The windows of these houses weren’t boarded up. They were glazed, though many were broken with jagged, open holes.

  A feeling gripped Ana and became unshakable – she had to go back. She tried to rationalise with herself that back meant towards Cole, Nate and Rachel. They’d seen the direction she’d left the courthouse. If they’d split up at direction she’d left the courthouse. If they’d split up at the two junctions she’d passed, there was a strong chance that one of them would run into her.

  Up ahead she saw a male figure swimming in the shadows of a first-floor window. She shuddered at the sight of him. Turning, she began to slip and stagger over the uneven ground, back the way she’d come. Her foot twisted on a glass bottle. Pain shot through her ankle.

  Deriding herself for over-reacting – it was just a man

  – she glanced back at the house and saw someone exiting the front door. Adrenalin buzzed down her arms making the tips of her fingers ache with energy. She clenched her teeth and began to move faster. From the corner of her eye, she saw a second figure appear at another door. Closer this time. And then her heart stopped dead. Almost every door up and down the street behind her had people pouring out of them, like creatures from a disturbed nest. Their eyes watched her as they ventured off porches and down paths on to the pavements.

  She began to sprint. Fear obscured the pain in her ankle, 160

  obscured everything around her. She didn’t hear the throb of a motorbike biting through the eerie drumbeat, didn’t see it until it was practicaly on top of her. The bike puled up beside a lamp post.

  ‘You look like you might need a ride,’ the driver said.

  Cole! She stared at him, panting. Her ankle was agony.

  Behind her, the motley crowd bore down. For the most part they moved dreamily, like they’d come out to see a strange light in the sky, like they couldn’t quite believe their eyes. But four young men in hooded tops and dark combat trousers had zoned in. They only hesitated now, at this unexpected complication.

  Ana climbed up on the seat of the bike. Whatever Cole might do to her, he didn’t make her skin crawl like these people. She circled her arms around his waist. He revved the engine and spun the bike in a semi-circle. From the safety of her moving seat, she watched the sleepwalkers recede. Their strange eyes seemed to pul the outside world into them, like dark matter. Without thinking, she drew closer to Cole.

  Acton High Street teemed with fruit and veg market stals, street vendors caling out prices and deals, customers balancing over-ful carrier bags of food on their handle bars, and infants splashing in puddles. The presence of so many ordinary Carriers and Sleepers comforted Ana. The bustle and activity made things seem almost normal again as Cole threaded his motorbike down the centre of the street and veered into a road with no pedestrians and fewer bicycles, e-trikes and rickshaws. The engine spluttered as they pushed forwards at thirty miles per hour. Ana 161

  wondered what it ran on. There was no way he could afford pure petrol.

  They passed under a wide highway, suspended above the streets. It was part of the London ring road used by Pure chauffeurs to circumvent the City. Five minutes later, they traversed a canal bridge. In the distance, Ana could hear holering and a crowd chanting. Cole puled up and cut the engine. He wheeled the bike under a bush, up and cut the engine. He wheeled the bike under a bush, then turned to her. His eyes held a mixture of curiosity and warmth.

  ‘Are you coming?’ he asked. Without waiting for her response, he slipped over a crumbled wal. If she was going to make a run for it, now was the time. Ana hesitated. The chanting masses were getting closer. She squinted towards the end of the street. A swarm of jerking, limping people approached. Ahead of it, several women fled as though trying to outrun a natural catastrophe. She didn’t want to get caught up in a Crazy protest march. She’d have to move fast, quickly put some distance between herself and the crowd.

  But she didn’t. Because if she ran, she might never find Cole and his family again. And Cole was the only person she knew who might have answers to her questions.

  He’d startled her in the courtroom, but she didn’t feel so afraid of him now. Not that she trusted him. But if he meant her harm, surely he wouldn’t have walked away from her just now.

  She turned and folowed where she’d seen him go, over the wal and down a steep, overgrown incline to the waterway. High banks sheltered the canal from street view. Only two boats coloured the brown water –

  Enkidu and Reliance.

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  As Cole headed towards them, Lila scrambled along the side of Enkidu shouting, ‘They’re here!’ Simone popped out of Reliance folowed by Rafferty. Lila jumped on to the canal path and ran into her brother’s arms. Rafferty, Simone and her bulge joined the embrace. Ana hung back awkwardly.

  back awkwardly.

  From the bridge above came a strange howl. The yeling and hooting grew louder. Ana looked up to see burning pieces of paper flying through the air. Ash fluttered down like black rain.

  ‘Come on,’ Lila said, puling her towards the boat. ‘We should get inside.’

  *

  Two hours later, dusk settled across the canal. On the horizon, tower blocks cut black fingers against the deep-blue evening. A March wind gusted through Ana’s jacket and the skirt she stil wore. She was sitting on Enkidu’s roof, legs hugged to her chest. Inside Enkidu it had been warm.

  Her cheeks were stil flushed from the fire. She gazed at the skyline and wondered why Cole hadn’t told the others who she was.

  She’d felt increasingly uneasy watching him laugh and celebrate with his family – Nate and Rachel had arrived an hour and a half ago. She couldn’t understand what he wanted her for. Why was he letting her in among them when he knew who she was? And why had he been folowing her the night of Jasper’s abduction?

  Adding to her agitation were thoughts about the hooded men and the zombie people. She felt as though the zombies 163

  were stil watching her, their strange black eyes looking straight into her mind.

  The wooden ladder up through the hatch creaked, folowed by footsteps. Ana turned to the pale light of the wheelhouse and saw Nate, Simone, Rafferty and Cole filter out. Simone held her son’s hand across the gangplank.

  ‘Night,’ she caled, as they passed Ana, walking up the bank to Reliance’s mooring.

  ‘Night,’ Ana said.

  Cole and Nate embraced. Ana heard the rumble of their low voices, but couldn’t make out their exchange. Then Nate crossed on to land and Cole puled up the wooden plank. He tucked it down the side of the wheelhouse and disappeared inside. A minute later, he re-emerged with two steaming mugs. The nervousness Ana had felt looking at him in the courtro
om crept over her again. He came up the barge and sat down, taking off the thick knitted sweater he was wearing.

  ‘You’re cold,’ he said, pushing the sweater into her hands.

  ‘Freezing.’ Tentatively, Ana shucked off her leather jacked and puled Cole’s jumper over her head. It smelt of sunflowers and cut grass.

  ‘Lila said you don’t take sugar.’

  A tang of black tea began to blanket the faint odour of summer. Ana roled up the jumper’s long sleeves, put her jacket back on, and took the hot mug Cole was holding out to her.

  ‘Thank you,’ she said.

  ‘You’re welcome.’

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  Her hands trembled, so she quickly placed the mug at her feet.

  Cole lay down, arms folded behind his head. He sighed contentedly. ‘The first stars are out.’

  Ana tilted back and looked up. For the last three days, while she’d roamed the City with an ilicit sort of freedom she’d never known in her life, Cole had been in prison.

  From the corner of her eye she examined the prominent bruising to his face and wondered if the Psych Watch had tortured him for information.

  He was different from what she’d been expecting. Not less dangerous. No. She’d never felt such concentrated energy in a person. It was bound to be volatile, explosive. But he was also open, unguarded and totaly unpredictable.

  ‘Lila told me you puled Rafferty out of the canal,’ he said. ‘It seems two of us wouldn’t be here right now, if it wasn’t for you.’ He caught her eye, and she looked quickly away, gripping her knees tighter to her chest. So that was why he hadn’t told the others who she was yet.

  He owed her. But how long would his debt keep her safe? Would he stil try to use her as colateral if the Enlightenment Project didn’t get what they wanted from Jasper’s abduction?

  ‘When Simone had Rafferty in the hospital,’ Cole continued, gazing at the sky, ‘he was diagnosed a Big3

  continued, gazing at the sky, ‘he was diagnosed a Big3

  Active.

  The nurses put Taxil in his bottle. Nate and Simone weren’t even told. They were forced to keep him on it, partly cos of al the folow-up health visits, partly cos a newborn can’t handle the withdrawal. At six months Rafferty couldn’t sit up, couldn’t do anything. By one year . . .’ Cole paused, rubbed his chin. When he spoke again, she could hear the 165

  pain in his voice. ‘By one year he had never smiled. Nate has tried weaning him off the Taxil a couple of times, but Rafferty’s too young. The mood swings, the depression, the flood of emotions he’s never learnt to handle . . . how do you explain what’s happening to a four year old?’

  The sadness Ana felt after puling Rafferty from the canal returned to her, compounded by confusion. The meds were supposed to help Actives live balanced lives. But a one-year-old baby who’d never smiled? No parent could accept that was the best they could do for their child. No parent could be expected to live with such heartbreak.

  She sat quietly, knowing she would have done what Nate and Simone had done. And yet yesterday she’d practicaly accused Nate of child neglect. After a couple of minutes, she grew conscious again of Cole beside her and grew uncomfortable.

  ‘So,’ she said, twisting a strand of her short hair and shifting her feet. ‘I’ve been wondering, why were you folowing me at the Barbican?’

  Cole rocked his head to look at her, then perched up on one elbow. ‘And I’ve been wondering,’ he said, ‘how one elbow. ‘And I’ve been wondering,’ he said, ‘how you ended up in that courtroom today. You’re not a lawyer.’

  ‘I’ve studied law – sort of.’

  He stared at her, his lips curled in a slight smile. ‘I saw you once at the Academy,’ he said. ‘Your hair was different and you’ve changed the colour of your eyes, but it was you.’

  ‘So?’

  ‘You’re the only Pure girl I’ve ever seen there. And now you’re the only Pure girl I’ve ever seen in the City. And not 166

  just out in the City, but posing as an assistant lawyer, and doing it rather wel I might add.’

  ‘I’m not realy Pure.’ Ana chalenged his probing gaze with one of her own.

  He laughed. ‘You live in the Community and you’re bound to Jasper Taurel. Trust me, you’re Pure.’

  She broke eye contact and looked out at the canal, trying to buy herself time to think. He must know she was Ariana Barber, the Crazy girl who’d been mistakenly raised with the Pures, mustn’t he? After al, he knew Jasper was the son of the CEO of Novastra, and anyone who’d done their homework would know about Jasper’s contentious decision to bind with a Crazy.

  ‘I notice that you haven’t answered my question yet,’ she said, sounding calmer than she felt. ‘Why were you folowing me that night?’

  folowing me that night?’

  ‘I’m not sure you’re ready for the answer.’

  ‘Realy? And how do you think you know me so wel?’

  Cole stopped, looked down and laughed to himself.

  ‘I didn’t realise I was funny,’ she said.

  He shook his head. ‘I didn’t think a Pure girl could be so feisty.’

  She hesitated, unsure if she was been complimented or insulted. ‘What were you expecting? Timid, sweet, naïve?’

  She stared at him fiercely, but her eyes snagged on his blue irises and her heart back-flipped, landing askew in her chest. ‘Anyway, don’t try to tel me you don’t know who my father is.’

  ‘I’ve no idea who your father is.’

  ‘I don’t believe you.’

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  His eyes shifted towards the wheelhouse. She rocked back, as though he’d literaly let go of her.

  Rachel stood at the stern of the boat watching them.

  Flicking back her dark bob, she brushed along the deck, leapt to the bank and slunk into the dwindling half-light.

  Cole lay back down, arms behind his head. Ana wondered if he’d told Rachel who she realy was. Ever since Rachel had returned with Nate, she’d been giving since Rachel had returned with Nate, she’d been giving Ana nasty looks.

  ‘So, what are you saying? You think I’m involved in Jasper’s abduction, and that I was folowing you as a back-up plan?’ he asked. Her face began to burn. It was as though he’d plucked the words right out of her head, but for some reason it sounded ridiculous coming from him.

  ‘It wasn’t exactly the first impression I was hoping for.’

  He frowned, but his eyes were smiling.

  Ana’s throat closed up. She wrapped her hands around her mug. Warmth leached through her fingers.

  What does he mean, the first impression he’d been hoping for?

  ‘Did you know I was going to be at your pre-hearing?’

  she asked.

  ‘No. That was an extremely random and unpredictable move on your part.’

  She was losing the thread. He’d mocked her for thinking he was part of some abduction back-up plan, and now he was practicaly admitting he’d been folowing and pre-empting her movements.

  ‘Why did Jasper cal Richard Cox minutes before they took him?’

  ‘The number he rang is a kind of emergency hotline for 168

  people who need to disappear right-frigging-now before they get bagged.’

  ‘Bagged?’

  ‘Shot with some insane dose of LSD, so they flip out and the Watch rocks up to take them away, no questions asked.’

  Ana stared at Cole, lost for words. ‘Shot by who?’ she said finaly.

  ‘The Watch, the Wardens . . . it depends.’

  ‘Fine.’ She was having a hard time making sense of any of this. ‘What’s that got to do with Jasper?’

  Cole pushed himself up on both elbows and looked at her hard, as though gauging whether to say something.

  For a second time, Ana managed to hold her own. But then a terrible feeling slid through her. She already knew the answer: The morning of Jasper’s abduction, his acquaintance

  – the ex-Project member – had suddenly g
one nuts in the street and the Psych Watch had turned up in record time, as though they’d been waiting for it to happen. He’d been bagged. Had Jasper thought he was next?

  ‘Jasper was involved in something big,’ Cole said. ‘A couple of months back, I heard a guy from your Community had got his hands on information that proved the DNA Pure tests were a scam.’

  Ana baulked like a horse reaching a ten-foot-high jump.

  ‘What guy?’ she said. But again she knew the answer.

  ‘What guy?’ she said. But again she knew the answer.

  She knew he meant Jasper.

  Cole just looked at her.

  ‘My father was seminal in developing those tests,’ she said. ‘But you know that, don’t you?’

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  Cole’s eyes narrowed as though he didn’t understand, as though he was trying to figure out what she meant.

  ‘You expect me to believe that the boy I’m bound to has been plotting to discredit my father and the whole mental health system that’s holding this country together?’

  ‘Listen, I . . .’ The concern in his voice made everything worse.

  She sprang to her feet, fury making her wild and invin-cible. He was obviously trying to manipulate her, confuse her. Perhaps this was one of the Enlightenment Project’s brainwashing techniques – pretend to be caring and kind to a new recruit and then make them believe they’d been betrayed by the people they cared about most. She might stil be Jasper’s insurance policy, but let Cole try to stop her from leaving. Then he’d see how submissive and fragile she realy was.

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  15

  Lies

  Ana stormed down the side of the barge to the stern. She faltered at the dark four-foot gap where Rachel had leapt faltered at the dark four-foot gap where Rachel had leapt ashore. Behind her, something knocked the wheelhouse.

  She spun about and saw Cole with the gangplank. He gently brushed her to one side and laid the plank across from Enkidu to the shore.

  In the semi-darkness, he lifted his palm to her. For a moment, she thought he was offering her the chance to change her mind – to stay with him – but when she looked down she saw an ID stick glinting in the faint light from the porthole. Her ID stick. He’d retrieved it from Nate. He was letting her go.