Free The Disappearances by Gemma Malley Page B

Lucas intently as he spoke. ‘Like I said, they’ve been coming a long time. Once a month maybe. In, then out. Always at night.’
    Lucas’s brow furrowed. ‘Every month? And where do they come from?’
    ‘No idea. I opened the gate, went back to my house. Just like I was told to by the Brother.’
    Lucas grimaced as he remembered the look of irritation on the Brother’s face when he confiscated the gatekeepers’ keys. ‘You didn’t watch them?’
    Rab looked down. ‘Not supposed to watch them.’
    ‘But you do. You must. How many of them are there? What do they look like?’
    Rab shrugged uncomfortably. ‘Maybe I’ve seen them once or twice. Not on purpose. Just, you know, glimpses. There are usually two or three of them. With a lorry.’
    ‘And what do they do?’ Lucas demanded.
    ‘They come in for a few hours, leave their stuff, then they go,’ Rab said gruffly. ‘I don’t know what they do, I don’t know why. All I know is that when they leave I lock the gate again. That’s all I want to know.’
    Lucas shook his head, his brain trying to process this information, trying to make sense of it. ‘No,’ he said. ‘No, I don’t buy this. They would have been seen. The System would have spotted them. I would have spotted them.’
    ‘These people can hide,’ Rab said, his voice dark suddenly. ‘These people can do anything.’
    ‘Like killing people? Dragging them here without anyone seeing? Without you seeing? Rab, this doesn’t make any sense.’
    Rab looked uncomfortable. ‘I’m not saying it was them. Just that they exist.’
    Lucas nodded. ‘So when did they come last? Before I took your key, I assume?’
    ‘It was three months ago.’
    ‘Three months ago?’ Lucas’s face creased into a frown. ‘But that doesn’t make any sense either. That … I don’t understand.’
    Rab raised an eyebrow, then he leant forwards, his expression suddenly conspiratorial. ‘That’s the thing, though,’ he said under his breath. ‘This time it was different.’
    ‘Different how?’ Lucas asked impatiently.
    Rab smiled, apparently enjoying Lucas’s frustration. He took another sip of whisky, then spat violently on the floor. ‘Different,’ he said, cradling his glass and looking at Lucas knowingly, ‘because like I said, they came three months ago. But this time, they didn’t leave.’
    Lucas felt his heart begin to thud in his chest. He could feel Clara’s eyes on him, saying ‘I told you so. I told you.’
    ‘So they’ve been here all this time?’ he asked, but Rab didn’t answer; instead he held his hand up, motioning for Lucas to be quiet.
    ‘You hear that?’ he asked. Lucas shook his head. ‘They follow you here?’
    Lucas was surprised to see Rab’s face fill with fear. ‘You led them to me?’ he asked, standing up, agitated. ‘Get out. Let them take you. I just want to be left alone. I don’t want anything to do with this.’
    ‘You’re already up to your neck,’ Lucas whispered, because now he too could hear the sound of footsteps outside. ‘You’re the one who let these people into the City,’ he said. ‘And you found the bodies with me.’
    ‘I noticed the flies, that’s all,’ Rab hissed, then he grabbed Lucas. ‘This way,’ he said, bundling him and Clara out through a kitchen that smelt of mould and sour milk. ‘You get out, you get yourself hidden and you don’t get yourself unhidden, understand?’ He opened a door silently and pushed them through it before closing it immediately.
    Lucas grabbed Clara and pulled her down towards the swamp, submerging them both in its foul-smelling depths, guiding her hands to find the narrow platform that enabled access to the gate. With one hand, he held her; with the other, he clung onto the platform himself. Then, silently, they waited.

7
    It was dark outside, and his limbs were beginning to ache. Thomas realised that he had been sitting in the same position for several hours; he was hungry and thirsty. But such