The System

by Gemma Malley

  Putting his feet up on his desk, Milo closed his eyes, then he opened them again. Frankie must have had help. Perhaps Evie had, too. If he could find one, perhaps he could find the other. Perhaps this nightmare would come to an end.

  ‘Get me image recovery,’ he barked into his chip. ‘I want facial recognition throughout Paris, photograph coming through now.’

  22

  ‘Evie? Is that your name?’

  Evie stared in shock at the girl standing over her. Tall, beautiful, a baggy sweatshirt covering her slender frame, a leather jacket in her hands, dark hair like a boy’s. She looked different, but Evie knew who it was immediately, and she felt herself beginning to shake, because Frankie was dead. Which meant that either Evie was seeing things, or that there was a ghost standing in front of her.

  ‘You don’t need to be afraid. We’re friends. We’re here to help.’ The man was talking now; Evie regarded him suspiciously. She had run on instinct; had assumed the worst when she’d heard voices, seen two people approaching her. Now, on the ground, the two of them standing over her, she was looking around desperately for something to hit them with.

  Frankie crossed her arms across her chest and looked over at her friend. He shrugged. ‘Do you recognise Frankie? She’s on the run like you. Infotec tried to kill her. You can trust us.’

  Evie stayed silent; she had learned long ago that talking was the easiest way to get into trouble.

  ‘My name is Glen,’ the man said. ‘Friends of mine helped you escape. Caught you when you jumped off that roof. Drove you here. Are you okay? Are you thirsty?’

  He handed her his bottle of water and Evie took it tentatively. He had a nice face.

  ‘Glen,’ she said, her voice barely audible. She cleared her throat, drank some water. ‘Thank you,’ she said, a little louder this time.

  ‘You’re very welcome.’ He looked at her curiously, his eyes darting away every time she looked back at him. ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘We can’t stay out here. Back into the garage until we work out what we’re doing next.’

  ‘You don’t know what we’re doing next?’ Frankie asked quizzically, her right eyebrow shooting up. Evie reddened; it was strange seeing her in the flesh, the girl she had watched for hours on the screen, the girl whose intimate secrets she had been party to, whose decisions she had judged, whose every thought had been plastered across the screen for all to see.

  Glen ignored Frankie’s question; he opened the door to the garage and ushered them inside.

  ‘So, watch my funeral?’ Frankie asked her.

  Evie shook her head, refusing to admit that she’d watched the whole thing.

  Frankie looked slightly taken aback. ‘Oh. Right. Well, it wasn’t me anyway.’

  Evie met her eyes but still said nothing.

  Frankie folded her arms. ‘So you’re from the UK?’

  Evie nodded tentatively.

  ‘I thought the UK had been blown to smithereens,’ Frankie said. ‘I thought it was too radioactive to get close. Guess things aren’t always how they seem.’

  ‘No,’ Evie said, biting her lip. ‘I guess not.’

  ‘You really don’t know who I am? I mean, you never watched me?’

  Frankie was looking at her curiously, like she couldn’t believe anyone wouldn’t be riveted watching her day after day. Maybe they had tried to kill her, but it certainly hadn’t taught her any humility. Evie’s face hardened. ‘I’m not that interested in parties and clothes,’ she said. ‘Where I come from there are more important things to worry about. Like people being murdered. Like Infotec ruining people’s lives.’

  Frankie stared at her open-mouthed, then her eyebrows lifted in her trademark expression. ‘There are important things to worry about here as well,’ she said, tartly. ‘But that doesn’t mean we can’t look presentable while we worry about them. Or enjoy ourselves from time to time, something that apparently you know nothing about.’

  She looked Evie up and down and wrinkled her nose in distaste; Evie felt her temperature rise and looked the other way. What was Linus thinking sending this airhead to find her? Had he made a huge mistake?

  ‘So,’ Glen said, closing the garage door behind them. ‘Raffy is a friend of yours?’

  Evie frowned. ‘How do you know about Raffy?’ she asked.

  ‘He’s been in touch with us,’ Glen said, crouching down on the ground. ‘He orchestrated your escape. You’re pretty brave, by the way, jumping off the roof like that, trusting us to catch you.’

  ‘It wasn’t Raffy; it was Linus,’ Evie said immediately. ‘And he didn’t tell me I’d be caught. He just told me to jump.’

  ‘Off a roof? And you did it?’ Frankie asked incredulously.

  Evie stared at her. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I did it. When you believe in something, when you trust someone … He asked me so I did it. Do you have a problem with that?’

  Frankie shrugged and looked away.

  Glen frowned uncertainly. ‘Okay. Well, I’m glad we were there. But listen, Raffy wants us to get you back to the UK. That’s why we’re here.’

  ‘We’re going to the UK?’ Frankie turned back immediately. ‘Are you serious?’

  ‘It’s not Raffy,’ Evie said, looking straight at Glen and ignoring Frankie. ‘It’s Linus. You’ve got the wrong person. Raffy is the reason we were captured in the first place. Raffy wouldn’t help me escape. He wouldn’t help me do anything. But of course I want to get back to the UK. Can we really get there?’

  Glen pulled a face. ‘Hold out your hand.’ Evie did as she was told, then cried out as Glen took out a knife and cut her, putting something cold and hard under her skin.

  ‘Sorry about that,’ he said. ‘But you need one of these.’

  ‘A chip?’ Evie whispered. She knew about chips from watching the screens day in, day out.

  ‘Got it in one,’ Glen nodded. ‘Okay, so now your friend can reach you. Raffy. Linus. Whatever he’s called.’

  Evie waited, not sure what to do, not sure how the message would reach her. And then there it was, in front of her eyes, words flashing in pinks and blues. ‘Are you okay? Are you hurt? I’m so sorry. You couldn’t know about Glen, otherwise you’d have jumped differently, Thomas would have known. I’m so sorry, Evie. But you’re okay? Tell me you’re okay.’

  Evie looked around awkwardly, but soon realised that no one else could see the messages. ‘I’m fine,’ she said out loud, then blushed. ‘How do I reply? What do I do?’ she asked Glen.

  ‘Open your hands. A keyboard will appear that only you can see,’ Glen told her gently, showing her what to do. Evie copied him. It was incredible. It appeared, right in front of her, like it was real. Frankie was smirking at her, but she didn’t care. Not anymore. She was going back to the UK. She was going to see Lucas.

  ‘I’m fine,’ she said. ‘Why did you tell them you were Raffy?’

  There was a long pause.

  ‘This is Raffy. Linus is being scrutinised too closely to communicate with anyone except me. Evie, I’m sorry …’

  But Evie had already closed her eyes, turned away; when the words refused to disappear, she tried shaking her head from side to side.

  Glen frowned. ‘What’s the matter?’ he asked.

  ‘Nothing,’ Evie said. ‘I just …’

  ‘Evie, you have to trust me. I’m working with Linus. You have to believe me.’

  Evie shook her head again, less violently this time. ‘I can’t trust you,’ she typed.

  She looked up at Glen. ‘Raffy,’ she said. ‘It’s Raffy. Not Linus.’ Her voice was faltering; this was another of Raffy’s tricks. She knew it was. He was playing with her, teasing her. She wasn’t going to get to the UK. She had to get out of here.

  ‘That’s right,’ Glen said. ‘Well, I’m glad we cleared that up. So, has he told you the plan?’

  ‘But you don’t understand,’ Evie said, beginning to shake now. ‘You don’t understand. If it’s Raffy then that changes everything. If it’s Raffy …’ She
stood up, ran towards the door, but Glen got there before she could open it.

  ‘Let me go,’ she screamed. ‘Let me go! I want to go home. I want to get out of this place. You have to let me leave.’

  She was banging her hands against the door, kicking her legs, but Glen was too strong for her. ‘Evie, you have to listen to me,’ he said, his voice low, right next to her ear. ‘You’re going to the UK. We all are. Your friend Raffy told me that you’ve got mixed feelings for him, but right now he’s on your side. This was all his idea. Frankie’s going to film your City. Show the world the truth. Show Thomas up.’

  Evie shook her head, but immediately a message appeared in front of her eyes. ‘Evie, you have to believe me. You have to trust me. I know this is all my fault. I know that. I’ve only ever let you down. But right now I’m doing my best to make it up to you. You’re going to the UK. With Frankie. When people see her there, see that she’s alive, see that Thomas lied about everything, they’ll see what he’s like. It’ll be over then, Evie. We’ll be free. Thomas and the System, they’ll be over. I’m so sorry Evie. About everything. But believe me now. Please?’

  A huge lump appeared in her throat that felt like it was going to choke her.

  ‘No,’ she said, her voice breaking. ‘I don’t believe it. I don’t …’

  ‘You should,’ Glen said, still holding her. ‘We’re in this together now. We need to stay focused.’

  ‘No,’ Evie said, trying to break free again. Then she stopped, looked at Glen. ‘What did Raffy tell you? What did he ask you to do?’

  ‘To catch you when you fell off the roof,’ Glen said quietly. ‘To have a car waiting. He had it all mapped out. Sounded crazy to me, terrifying in fact, but he’d worked it all out, got the blueprint of the building, the air patterns. He asked me to get you somewhere safe, to come and get you myself and to take you to the UK.’

  ‘How?’ Frankie asked, walking over, kicking some mud off her boots. ‘How the hell are we supposed to get to the UK? Fly? On which plane exactly? And who’s going to stop us being shot down? It’s a no-fly zone, remember.’

  Glen pulled a face. ‘We’re not going by plane.’

  ‘Okay,’ Frankie said dubiously. ‘So how then? Boat? Again, how do you intend to get us past the armed coastguard?’

  ‘I don’t know, but Raffy says he has a plan and right now we have to trust him. So far he hasn’t let us down. So can I let you go, Evie? Are you going to try and run again?’

  Evie shook her head. ‘I’m not running,’ she said, only half sure she was telling the truth.

  ‘Evie, are you there?’ A message flashed through from Raffy. ‘Do you believe me? I don’t need forgiveness, just to know that you can trust me enough to let me help you. Glen and Frankie are on your side. You can trust them.’

  Evie read the words slowly, trying to process what she was being told, trying to reconcile it with everything she knew. ‘And what about you, Raffy? Whose side are you on?’ she typed into the air.

  ‘Your side.’ The reply came back straight away. ‘Only ever your side, Evie.’

  Evie stared at the words, watched them as they glowed in front of her before gradually evaporating into nothingness.

  Like her and Raffy. They had glowed once. They had been everything to each other. But now it was all just empty space.

  ‘Evie?’ She realised Glen was talking to her.

  ‘Evie, we have to get going. We’ve got a long walk ahead of us. Are you okay to leave now?’

  Evie stood up. Was she okay to leave? She wasn’t sure she was okay to do anything. Everything was terrifying and unbelievable, from the dead Frankie staring at her like she was an idiot, to the words flashing in front of her eyes, to the news that Raffy was behind all of this. She hated Raffy; that was something she knew, something she could hold on to. When he had betrayed them and brought Thomas to Linus’s cave, it was as though his transformation from the boy she’d loved back in the City to the man who had proved to be weak, flawed and dangerous was complete. He was a different Raffy, a Raffy she could not look at, would not acknowledge.

  But now … Now Raffy was working with Linus and helping her to escape; he was urging her to get to Lucas. She had seen him laughing with Milo; now was she expected to believe that he had been faking it? Or was he faking this? Was it a trap? A plot?

  ‘You okay, Evie? Tell me you’re okay. Glen’s a good person. He’ll look after you.’

  More words flashing in front of her, messages from Raffy. And it reminded her of when she’d been little, living in the City, and had been sad and afraid; reminded her of the way she’d come to the tree hollow where she and Raffy always met, and would find notes from him, telling her that everything would be okay, telling her that she lit up his life, that she was more precious than the sun, that one day things would be different, that they’d be together, that everyone else would be proved to be wrong and they would be right and … and …

  She closed her eyes. That had been a long time ago. She took a deep breath. ‘Sure, let’s go.’

  ‘Good,’ Glen said, carefully opening the door of the garage and starting to walk.

  ‘So the UK really wasn’t blown up?’

  They’d been walking in the moonlight for over an hour, mostly in silence, Evie refusing all offers of help to climb walls, cross bridges or scrabble down steep hills. Every time they heard so much as a bird flap their wings they dropped down onto the ground, pressed their faces into the mud and waited; the tension and fear in the air was thick as they followed Raffy’s instructions, moving towards whatever lay ahead. Frankie, she couldn’t help noticing, was remarkably agile and graceful, her long legs striding purposefully alongside Glen, her expression revealing no fear or trepidation. On film, Frankie had seemed an inoffensive airhead; in the real world, she was far worse. Cocky, arrogant, she thought she knew everything. But she knew nothing. The worst thing that had happened to her in her whole life was probably breaking a nail.

  Glen, on the other hand, seemed okay, as far as Evie could tell. As they’d left the garage he had briefly introduced himself, explaining how he’d been in hiding for years, about how crossing Thomas meant his life was in constant danger, about how he’d made his peace with that and now just wanted the world to know the truth, whatever that was. It felt strange listening to him, realising that he had gone to ground at the same time Lucas’s father and Linus had been fighting against the Brother, against the System, against Thomas. They were brothers in arms, kind of, but neither had known the other existed, and now …

  She realised Glen was waiting for an answer to his question and shook herself. ‘No,’ she said. ‘I mean yes, the Horrors happened but people survived. There’s the City, and the Settlement and other places where people have built communities, where people …’ She felt a lump appear in her throat as she thought about her friends from the Settlement that Thomas had destroyed. Were they still hiding in the mountains? Did they have enough food, enough water? Were they trying to rebuild the Settlement even though they hadn’t heard from Benjamin? ‘We thought we were the only survivors. In the world, I mean. We were told the rest of the world … that it was destroyed.’

  ‘Seriously?’ Glen asked, shaking his head. ‘Jeez, Thomas really thought it all through, didn’t he. And it was all because of this System? Why? What’s so special about it?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Frankie said, catching up so that she was the other side of Evie. ‘What exactly does it do?’

  Evie hung back slightly; she didn’t want to be quite so close to Frankie. ‘The System sees everything.’ She shrugged. ‘And Linus built it. He wanted it to be a good thing, a System that saw what everyone needed, that made sure everything was fair, that people were happy. But that wasn’t what Thomas wanted …’

  She paused. She didn’t have the energy to tell them everything, not right now. It had taken her so long to piece it all together; to understand just what lengths Thomas had gone to, all because he believed that, given the right environme
nt, the right circumstances, Linus would produce the System he had boasted about as a young intern in Thomas’s department. Thomas had engineered a series of terrorist attacks that sparked a civil war; had allowed the UK to virtually destroy itself. He had allowed the world to believe that it was a dangerous mound of toxic nuclear waste and enabled the Great Leader to establish a City with Linus. He’d allowed the Great Leader to operate on and brain damage hundreds of people to test his theory on evil. He had ruined so many lives, torn so many families apart, spread so many lies, and all so that Linus could build the System. And now he thought Raffy was rebuilding it for him. Or maybe Raffy really was building it; maybe he was lying to her, Glen and Frankie, just like he’d lied before. Evie didn’t know and she didn’t have the energy to care. Not really. She just wanted to get home. She just wanted to see Lucas.

  She stopped walking, mentally drew herself up, imagining what Lucas would think if he heard her thoughts, imagining his disappointment in her. Of course she cared. She cared deeply. ‘He has to be stopped,’ she said, softly. ‘Thomas has to be stopped because if he isn’t …’

  ‘If he isn’t, then it’s very bad news for all of us,’ Glen said, grimly.

  ‘So come on,’ Frankie said impatiently. ‘Tell us how we’re going to get there. Because I’m not swimming, if that’s the plan.’

  Evie glanced at Glen, then at Frankie. ‘Raffy hasn’t told you about the train tunnel?’ she asked. He’d told her about it an hour ago, told her how he’d spent hours studying history pages, learning about the Horrors, or at least what had been written about them, studying maps of Paris, the history of Paris, anything that would help him. He’d been sending her messages every minute; she hadn’t replied to most of them.

  ‘Train tunnel?’ Frankie asked. ‘What are you talking about?’