Free The Vanished by Sarah Dalton Page A

the back of my neck. My dream. The dead boy in the lake. The memory of when Sebastian killed the Enforcer saving my life. I tried to shake it off. “Come on. We should get away from these people.”
    “I’m going to help Ali and Ginge set up the stall,” he said.
    “Will you be okay?”
    “Mina,” he said with a half-smile, “I’ll be fine.”
    I watched Sebastian disappear through the trailers on his way to the market. Mothers snatched their children, pulling them away from him as he passed them, as though he had a disease. This wasn’t good. After just a month Sebastian found himself in trouble with the people in the Compound and I just made things worse. Dr Woods was right. I should never have used my gift in front of them, although I didn’t see what me being a girl had to do with anything. It struck me as a strange thing to say, and an even worse thing to believe.
    Kitty stood by the door, shifting from one foot to the other. “I saw what you did.”
    “I’m not in the mood for a lecture.”
    “No, I wouldn’t.” She lurched forward and took me by the shoulders. Kitty had no concept of personal space, and what she thought was soothing was usually just unnerving. I was starting to get used to her. “I think you did the right thing.”
    “You do? But it’s just stirring up trouble between us and them.” I wanted to get dressed and make a cup of tea. This day had begun with the worst start possible, and I wanted some normality. Unfortunately, privacy was another concept lost on Kitty.
    “Us and them,” she said. “What does that even mean? It’s silly.” She giggled. “You did it to stop Sebastian getting hurt. It’s like your dad always says: if the power used comes from a good place – it’s a good thing.”
    I bristled as she mentioned my dad. I hated being reminded that he had been looking after other children apart from me. “I know what my dad says.”
    Kitty flushed. “I was just trying to help.” She dropped her eyes from mine and her smile froze.
    “Kitty,” I said. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to––”
    She put her hands up as though in protest. “It’s fine. I know what you meant.”
    With a few nimble steps she was gone, blonde hair swishing after her. The door slammed, and I had all the privacy I needed.

12
    “You punch like a girl.” Mike grinned at me behind the punch-bag. He was spotting me while Dad and Hiro meditated upstairs in the barn. Kitty was nowhere to be seen, but we’d guessed she was wandering around the Compound border. She did that when she was upset – like a caged cat.
    I hit back, harder, almost knocking Mike to the floor. “I’ve been holding back. Didn’t want to hurt you.”
    He snorted and regained composure. “No chance of that, sister.”
    He’d taken to calling me sister and Hiro “bro” which was strange slang that I’d never heard of before. “Where are you from, anyway?” I asked after finishing a round of jabs to the punch-bag.
    Mike grinned again. “London.”
    I stopped punching to listen. “How is that possible? You’re not a Clone are you?”
    Mike pulled a disgusted face. “Of course not! My parents were in the resistance.”
    The Ministry kept London free from all non-GEM families because they didn’t want trouble from the Resistance. I’d always wondered how they lived and even fantasised about joining them, even after my mother’s disappearance, or maybe because of it.
    “You were in the London Resistance? Where did you live?” I pulled off my boxing gloves and tossed them to the floor.
    “Oh, I get it,” he said with a smirk. “You like danger.” He grinned again and ran his fingers through his hair. “We moved around a lot. Disused buildings… sympathiser’s basements… things like that. We stayed in churches a lot.”
    “Churches?”
    “Yeah,” he continued. “The clergy were anti-cloning, but the high-powered ones pretended to be pro so they could keep their funding and their middle-class GEM