do something about it.”
“We?” I say stupidly. Hinchcliffe glares at me again, then starts pacing around the living room. Rufus scuttles out of the way as he moves toward him. Hinchcliffe spots the wrench I leave lying around for self-defense. He picks it up and starts swinging it, passing it from hand to hand and feeling its weight.
“Here’s what’s going to happen,” he announces. “I’m sending Llewellyn and a few others out at first light to find those bastards. Llewellyn thinks he’s worked out where they’re likely to have come from. He’ll find them and either bring them back to me or get rid of them. And you’re going with them.”
“Me? Why?”
“Don’t pretend you don’t fucking know. Same reason I always send you. You’re so fucking insignificant that no one gives you a second glance. You can assess the situation better than most, and if you can’t assess it, you can at least spy on the fuckers and tell me what’s going on.”
“But I’m sick.”
“So? I’m not asking you to run a fucking marathon.”
I try to think of a valid reason that’ll make him change his mind, but I can’t.
“Okay,” I say, desperate to pacify him but already trying to think of ways to get away from this mess once and for all. I’m relieved when he starts walking back toward the door. Rufus hesitates, then follows in his footsteps, unsure what to do next. Clumsy bastard knocks another stack of books over, then walks into Hinchcliffe when he stops suddenly.
“Sorry, Hinchcliffe,” he mumbles pathetically, cowering back. Hinchcliffe ignores him and slowly turns back around to face me.
“Where were you, Danny?”
“What?”
“When the plane flew over, where were you? You still haven’t told me.”
“I don’t know when that was. Like I said, I’m sick. I went for a walk to try to clear my head, and when I got back I went to see your doctor.”
“Does it affect your hearing?”
“What?”
“This ‘sickness’ of yours, makes you deaf, does it?”
“No.”
“So how come you didn’t hear anything? They were circling Lowestoft for almost an hour, maybe even longer. How could you not have heard it?”
“I don’t know. How am I supposed to answer that? I’ve had things on my mind. Like I said, I could have been asleep or down by the beach…”
“It’s all a bit convenient, isn’t it?”
“Is it?”
He stares at me, unblinking. Does he know more than he’s letting on? My pulse is racing, but I hold his gaze. He finally breaks eye contact and looks away, and the relief is immense.
“No, probably not.”
“What, then? What are you saying?”
“You talk the talk, Danny, but do you really understand how important this might be?”
“Yes, you’ve just explained.”
“So you understand that it’s crucial for me to keep control of this place?”
“Yes.”
“So why weren’t you here?”
“You said to take some time off. You said you didn’t need me.”
“I thought you were smarter than that.”
“What?”
“I might have told you I didn’t have anything I needed you to do for a couple of days, but I didn’t say you could go away on a fucking vacation.”
“I didn’t go on vacation, I just—”
He holds up his hand (and my wrench) again to silence me. Arrogant bastard.
“In future you’ll be here exactly when I want you to be. Understand?”
“Have I ever not been? Have I ever—”
“I need to know who I can trust, Danny.”
“You can trust me. You know you can.”
“You let me down today. Llewellyn could have been on his way by now. If you’d been there he could have followed the damn plane out of town. Now we’ve given them a head start and they could be anywhere.”
“They’re flying, Hinchcliffe. They could be anywhere anyway.”
He takes another couple of steps closer, and I freeze. Keep your fucking mouth shut, you idiot, I scream to myself.
“When you get back with Llewellyn,” he seethes, “you’re going to collect all your shit from this house and find somewhere to stay in the middle of town, closer to the courthouse.”
“But—”
“I’m not asking, I’m telling.”
“What difference does it make?” I protest, desperate not to give up my privacy, remembering too late that I’m not planning on hanging around. Hinchcliffe moves closer still, and I immediately shut up, regretting my outburst. Then, with a grunt of sudden, unexpected anger, he spins around and smashes the wrench into Rufus’s face. Rufus immediately drops to the ground, and I stare at him, stunned. He lies on his back, arms and legs still moving, face covered with blood, whimpering through broken teeth. Hinchcliffe leans down and smacks him in the head again, finishing him off. He stands up, one foot either side of the now motionless body, and thrusts the bloody wrench at me.
“Don’t ever give me any reason not to trust you again.”
“I won’t…”
“I don’t know where the fuck you were today, but from now on you do exactly what you’re told. You don’t ask questions, you just do what I tell you. Understand?”
“I understand,” I say quietly, looking down at the battered body of my friend.
“Get the stuff you need together. We’re heading back into town. And don’t ever fuck with me again, Danny, because you will regret it.”
29
I’M IN THE BACK of an armor-plated van with Llewellyn and three other fighters, scared shitless. This is my worst nightmare. Llewellyn’s never trusted me, and he’s been waiting for a chance to get me away from Lowestoft on my own. There’s something different about the way he’s acting toward me today, and the longer this journey lasts, the more convinced I am that he’s probably the one who persuaded Hinchcliffe I should be part of this pointless expedition so he could get rid of me. Fucker’s going to kill me and concoct some bullshit story to explain to Hinchcliffe why his prize pet is dead.
The four members of my armed guard talk to each other in secretive whispers, deliberately excluding me. I’m used to it. I’ve felt like an outsider for as long as I’ve been in Lowestoft. No matter how I look at it, I seem to have a foot in neither camp. I’m neither fighter nor underclass; not like the rest of them, but not Unchanged either, just an unwanted, mixed-breed outcast. Today my paranoia has been ramped up by several hundred percent. Whatever the intentions of these men are, I won’t know for sure what they’re planning until they make their move. I have to try to stay one step ahead of the game, like I learned to do with the Unchanged. I have to hope that, wherever we end up, I’ll be able to find a way of giving them the slip and getting away. What I’ll do after I’ve broken cover is anyone’s guess. I don’t suppose it matters anymore. I’m not eating, hardly drinking … I’ll just find a rock to crawl under and sit it out. I can’t waste any more time thinking about it. I might not have any time left.
Llewellyn sits up front next to the driver, Ben Healey. In the back with me are two other men, handpicked for
