Tom glanced, agitated, at the clock. Julie studied him expectantly, waiting for him to continue. The eyes of her other students were settled upon him.
‘Thou comest to use thy tongue; thy story quickly.’
The other reader, red and sweating in anticipation of her turn, blurted out her line so quickly that no one understood it.
‘Slower please, Charlie,’ Julie interrupted. Charlie took a wavering breath and started again.
‘Gracious my lord, I should report—’
The bell rang. Immediately Charlie sat down.
‘Aww—!’ Tom exclaimed, lowering his book with impatience. ‘I didn’t even get to the good bit!’
‘Time’s up!’ Julie declared. ‘I don’t know about everyone else, but I’d quite like to get to lunch sometime soon, wouldn’t you?’
‘Can I read next lesson?’
She marked the page of her copy and set it to one side. ‘It’s Jack’s turn to read for Macbeth, next. You’ve already done it twice.’
Grumbling, Tom sat amongst his packing classmates. Julie eyeballed those already standing.
‘Did I say you were dismissed yet? Homework! I want you all to examine and translate Tom’s—Macbeth’s—last speech. No minimum word count, just as long as it takes for you to feel you’ve done all you can. Understood?’
With a few nods and with most students craning in their seats towards the door, Julie finally let them go. Viola followed Tom into the corridor, but then turned back towards her as she gathered her belongings at the front of the class.
‘Miss?’ she asked, once the room was empty. ‘I was wondering if I could talk to you for a moment.’
Julie hoisted her over-packed satchel onto her shoulder and gathered up the other papers that wouldn’t fit. ‘Of course. What can I help you with?’
‘Well, I have news.’
She could sense her excitement, and immediately knew what it was that she was talking about. ‘Do you mind if we walk and talk?’
‘Not at all,’ Viola said casually. She hung her coat over her crossed arms. ‘It’s nothing important.’
Julie walked her out of the classroom and locked the door in silence, conscious of the camera looming above their heads. They were usually positioned at the end of each corridor to cover every corner, but Marvin had told her that because of this they often failed to catch quiet conversations held in the long stretches between them—particularly when there were other students still bustling in the halls.
‘So tell me,’ Julie murmured when it was safe. ‘Is this to do with your modelling?’
Viola nodded, keeping close to her side. ‘I got a job,’ she whispered, looking straight ahead. ‘A campaign. It pays a lot, more than you can imagine.’
‘Oh, brilliant! Well done, I am pleased. What is it for?’
‘Have you heard of Bare Make-up?’ Julie nodded. ‘It’s a new product that they’re launching. I completely wasn’t expecting to get it, but my agency said they were keen on me because I’m unknown. I know it’s really last minute, but the shoot’s tomorrow. I only just found out.’
‘You’ll miss class?’
‘Sorry. It’s annoying it’s not over the weekend, but if I don’t do it, another girl will.’
Julie nudged her as they approached the end of the corridor. They walked in silence again, until they were a suitable distance away from the spying black sphere.
‘It is short notice, but you can’t not do it; it sounds like a great opportunity.’ She offered her a smile. ‘Honestly Viola, I have no problem with it so long as you keep up with your class work. And it’s only a one-off, right?’
She nodded. ‘My agency knows that I’m still in school. Fashion week might be a problem, but I don’t think my dad will let me do it with my exams so close.’
‘He’s right. You can put off a degree until later in life, but you only really get one chance at your Levels. You should be careful. It’s great that you’re doing the whole modelling thing, but I hear girls feel pressured to smoke to stay thin, and worse. I don’t want you getting sucked into any of that, or for you to rack up some huge debt with some agency that you can’t pay off.’
‘I know, miss,’ Viola said dutifully. ‘The money shouldn’t be a problem though, especially not since I’ve got a job already.’
‘And that’s great, but I wouldn’t go spending any of it until it’s clear you’re going to get something else. And you remember what I said—the moment you don’t feel good about yourself because of the modelling—’
‘I’ll stop, I know.’
Julie looked to her imploringly. ‘You promise?’
‘Yes. You’ve said all this before.’
‘I know.’ Julie hesitated as they passed into the main foyer outside the assembly hall. ‘I just worry about you. How is your dad?’
‘He’s good.’
‘And Bert?’
‘Still making his fortune selling at the London markets,’ she said fondly. ‘My dad’s coming to the shoot, I have to have a guardian with me.’
Julie frowned. ‘Do your other teachers know about it yet?’
Viola shook her head. ‘No one else knows that I’m modelling.’
‘And the principal?’
‘I was going to speak to him, but the earliest appointment I could get was for next week. I was wondering if I should mention it to him tonight, rather than going off sick.’
‘No, I wouldn’t do that,’ Julie murmured. ‘If you tell him now, you could find yourself in a very difficult situation. Just pay for a sick note.’
Viola seemed surprised. ‘You’re saying I should skive?’
‘If you can’t miss it. How much did you say it was again?’
‘A lot.’
‘Well, if you’re getting paid a lot, do you really want to run the risk of the principal saying no? If you call in sick when he knows about the shoot, you’ll be looking at suspension faster than you can say cheese.’
Viola sniggered. ‘Miss, that was terrible.’
‘I know, it was, wasn’t it?’
They came to a halt outside the Wormelow staff room. The door was shut, but already several of her colleagues were inside. The building had begun to empty, leaving only a few avid studiers to gather at the doors to the small library down the hall.
‘Pop by after lunch,’ she said, secretly pleased that she had been chosen as Viola’s confidant. ‘I’ll give you your homework for Friday.’
‘So I shouldn’t talk to the principal?’
‘I would still go and see him next week. Part of me thinks that he’ll like the prestige of having a model boosting the achievements of the school, but I do know how strict he is with attendance. It might be a case of no exceptions.’
‘Right. He did get twitchy with Tom’s record when he had glandular fever last year.’
Julie offered an encouraging smile. ‘Don’t worry about it yet. You just go to this thing and have a fantastic time. Let me know when you get the pictures. I can’t wait to see them.’
Viola’s face lit up once again and she nodded fervently. ‘I will.’
They parted just in time. Mr Slow came trundling down the corridor and the staff room door was opened by Andrew Graham, who, delighted to see her, let Julie in with an exclamation and an immediate reference to one of the New National’s latest policies.
* * *
History was Gwenhwyfar’s last lesson of the day. They were each given a practice paper to complete, though as the holidays were approaching Marvin let them discuss their answers with one another while he read with his feet up. Gwenhwyfar spent most of the lesson whispering to either Bedivere or Arthur. Despite making her usual effort with Morgan, the other girl seemed happy to be left alone.
The sky was darkening as the school day ended. Gwenhwyfar had just passed through the main gates when a tight hand grasped her wrist. She wheeled round. Isolde.
‘Get off me!’ She smacked her on the forearm. Retreating, Isolde reached for her again.
>
‘Gwen, wait! I need to talk to you.’
‘Leave me alone.’ Gwenhwyfar backed away. ‘I don’t want to talk to you ever again. I’m done; do you hear me? I’m out.’
‘I’m not here to make you stay, I swear. I just wanted to talk—please?’
‘We have nothing to talk about,’ she snapped, walking away as quickly as she could without running.
‘But we do,’ Isolde argued, dogging her steps. ‘It won’t take long.’
‘How did you even find me?’ she hissed. ‘Have you been following me?’
‘Of course not—I used to go here, remember? I didn’t know what else to do. Your phone goes straight to answer machine and when I tried contacting you online I got disconnected.’
‘I changed my number,’ she stated. ‘Specifically so you wouldn’t try and contact me. What if someone finds out? Tracks you down and then discovers me?’
‘They won’t,’ she insisted.
‘How can you say that?’ Gwenhwyfar demanded, irate.
‘If they could, don’t you think they would have done it already? If they knew who was responsible for the bombings, they would have caught them by now.’
She wheeled round on her. ‘Haven’t you been watching the news? They know it was us.’
Isolde rubbed her eyes. She looked ill. ‘I know. I swear though—if you let me explain now, I’ll never bother you again. I had nothing to do with any of this.’
‘And why should I believe you?’ she flared. ‘What’s to say you’re not one of the ones who have gone to the New Morals already? Who’s to say you’re not baiting me?’
‘I’m taking a risk here, too. There’s every chance you could turn me in,’ she argued.
Gwenhwyfar hunted their surroundings for signs of anything suspicious. ‘If I talk to you, you’ll leave me alone?’
‘If that’s what you want.’
‘Fine. Where’s safe? A coffee house?’
‘There might be people watching,’ Isolde disagreed. ‘Here?’
Gwenhwyfar nodded towards a camera gazing at them from the street corner.
Isolde frowned. ‘My house—?’
‘No. We’ll go to mine.’ Gwenhwyfar turned on her heel and resumed her walk home.
The entire journey was made in silence. Thankfully, her mother wasn’t in and so difficult questions were avoided. Only Llew was present to witness affairs. He shoved his nose under Isolde’s hand, vying for attention. Betrayed by his willingness to trust anyone, Gwenhwyfar dragged him away to sit by her instead, pushing his rear end down to the carpet.
‘Well?’
Isolde sat uncomfortably at the far end of the room. ‘Firstly, I just want to say that I had no idea about any of this until I saw it on the news,’ she began. Gwenhwyfar experienced a flare of irritation that she felt privileged to, as one who had actually been there. ‘And that since then I’ve met other members who are just as scared as us.’
‘I thought this was all highly confidential?’ Gwenhwyfar frowned, clutching Llew’s collar. ‘How did you find them?’
‘By going up through the grapevine,’ she explained. ‘Everyone I spoke to found each other the same way.’
Gwenhwyfar felt her veins contract. ‘You didn’t mention me to any of them, did you?’
‘I wouldn’t do that without asking you first. I didn’t tell anyone, I swear.’
‘Well, that’s something at least.’ Gwenhwyfar glanced at the clock with agitation. She didn’t want Isolde to still be here when her mother came home.
‘The people I met… none of them had a clue what was going on. We tried to get higher up the vine, but the numbers we had weren’t recognised.’
‘They probably destroyed their phones. I can’t say I’m surprised.’
‘They must have deserted us. The chain’s broken. Now there’s no way of us ever knowing what it was the Alpha intended.’
Gwenhwyfar couldn’t say she was deeply upset by this idea. Isolde, however, seemed distressed.
‘It’s funny, you know. Most of the people I met were under thirty. They were all clueless. There’s no way a group with members like that—no matter how large—could have ever organised something as brutal as this.’
Gwenhwyfar held her tongue, scraping her nails into Llew’s fur. Her mind entertained the notion of calling the New Moral Army to let them know she had a wanted member of Free Countries in her living room. Perhaps then she too could be granted clemency.
‘I’m sorry I got you dragged into this.’
‘I chose to join,’ Gwenhwyfar snapped. ‘You didn’t make me.’
‘I’m still sorry,’ Isolde said. ‘I should have known it was suspicious. I mean, how long have I been a member? Nine months? And not once have I heard anything from anyone other than the odd update concerning codenames, the occasional checks and possible recruits. We’ve done nothing to protest Milton’s policies. It’s been such a waste, and in the end, what did all this secrecy produce? Fear.’
‘And what would you have done in protest, exactly?’ Gwenhwyfar asked, holding the accusation on the tip of her tongue.
‘Anything. We could have campaigned, we could have created our own political party with the members we had, but now it’s gone to waste. We’re being blamed for something we didn’t do.’
‘How do you know we didn’t do it? We might in some way be responsible merely by supporting such ideals. The government seems to think so.’
‘As far as I remember, that list I read you didn’t involve us blowing things up. If Free Countries was responsible, we would have heard of it when it was in the stages of being planned.’
‘I doubt it,’ Gwenhwyfar snorted. ‘And anyway, is this the sort of plan you’d expect to hear about? A terrorist attack?’ She pulled Llew closer to her as he whined. It was completely dark now, and he was pining for a trip into the garden.
‘Of course not, but don’t you think it’s a little odd? Why would the Alpha spend all those years gathering members to risk losing them to panic like this? The news said people are coming forward with information. Maybe they knew nothing about Free Countries to begin with. Maybe they just wanted to know who, what, and how many.’
‘So? For all we know the Alpha is just a psycho who likes blowing people up for fun,’ she bit, hackles raised. ‘I don’t care about your stupid little conspiracy theories, and I don’t care who’s responsible. All I know is that I’m not.’
Isolde sat tight-lipped.
‘Don’t tell me you’re thinking of staying involved. You can’t!’
‘Why can’t I?’ she disputed.
‘Because it’s crazy?’
‘I’m not giving up. The New Nationals are just trying to scare us. There’s no way we were responsible for those attacks.’
‘And I suppose the Alpha himself told you this? When? Or was it in a dream?’ Gwenhwyfar sneered. ‘Don’t you go thinking he won’t give everyone up the moment they catch him,’ she warned. ‘He’s obviously a coward if he’s been keeping quiet for this long. What do you think will happen when they get him? He’ll give up every number, every address he ever received.’
‘Well, he won’t give up yours,’ Isolde said. ‘I never passed on your number. I should’ve got it when we first met, but I forgot, remember? After that party I didn’t get the chance to send it to him.’
For a few brief moments Gwenhwyfar felt gratitude flood her system. ‘You mean he never got it?’ Isolde affirmed this with a shake of her head. ‘He’ll have yours, though?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then I suggest you get rid of it, if you don’t want to get caught.’
She shrugged, an air of resignation about her. ‘It won’t make a difference. You’ll be all right, that guy you recruited too—because the Alpha never got your numbers. Everyone else is done for. They’ll know whose names were listed to what number, along with where they live and where they were for all those years.’ She gave a strained smile. ‘You’re lucky.’
‘But what
about addresses?’ Gwenhwyfar frowned. ‘You must have my house listed somewhere for an information pack to have been sent here.’
‘We send flyers to every house in the South,’ Isolde shrugged. ‘How will they ever know what we posted? Besides, I was talking with a contact involved with the technical team. Apparently, if he knew an IP address, he knew where that computer was stationed. Every time someone visited the site the corresponding address was put onto an encrypted hard-drive. The Alpha had no copy. That’s why it was entrusted to those involved in the communication, so that if the Alpha was ever discovered the drives could be destroyed. He wrecked his in a microwave.’
‘Surely he can’t have been the only one with addresses?’ Gwenhwyfar let Llew go, and he trotted into the kitchen. She heard him whine.
‘There were several people with his role, some in different counties. He said that the best we can hope for is that everyone else thought to destroy their drive, too.’
Gwenhwyfar’s head swam with everything that had gone wrong, but her nerves were beginning to calm under the belief that she would be safe.
‘Maybe the Alpha has some way of wiping his records,’ she tried, becoming aware of the terror Isolde must be suffering. ‘If he was smart enough to organise all this, he must have taken precautions. There might not even be a hard copy of the numbers.’ Her suggestion was unlikely, but it seemed to offer Isolde some comfort. ‘What about the people coming forward? What if they give away the contacts they have?’
‘I don’t think there’s much we can do about that. All I know is that the people I’ve spoken to are lying low. As far as our details go, assuming that the Alpha never gets caught, we should—hopefully—be safe.’
Gwenhwyfar nodded in silence.
‘I put my computer’s drive in the microwave last night along with my phone. My parents went crazy. I had to make up some excuse about a Science project.’
Suddenly Gwenhwyfar felt an urgency to do the same, but it was too late. ‘It doesn’t matter. I’m out, Isolde. That guy I met is gone too. We’re both escaping while we still have the chance.’
‘I suppose it’s best. I’m thinking of starting something new with those other contacts, but we’re going to wait until this has all settled down.’
The Future King: Logres Page 42
