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‘Yes’

‘No nightmares?’

‘No’ I’d been afraid to close

‘Interesting There you have soe, and you sleep like a baby’ He looks quite fascinated, like I’ he doesn’t like not understanding things, people; anything

‘Maybe the injection I had at the hospital hadn’t worn off yet,’ I suggest

‘Perhaps,’ he says, but I get the feeling he knows they don’t last that long ‘What did you think of the terrorists?’

Does he someho that I sao of them, face to face? No How could he? His eyes are on the road now, as he navigates a twisty narrow stretch

‘Well?’

What do I think about the terrorists… I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the nurses ‘They’re evil,’ I say

‘Soo too far; that they are the evil ones That what happens in that hospital and others like it is wrong’

My eyes widen, shocked he’d dare say that, even as so that some people – unidentified and faceless – may think ‘But the AGT kill people, innocent people, who don’t have anything to do with anything It doesn’t ’

He tilts his head side to side, as if considering what I said ‘So, it isn’t so much their point of view, as their ’

He pulls into the school I was going to ask hiuson has been told by Mrs Ali to excludeme off the track at lunchtimes But suddenly I just want out of the car, away fro in a way that says so uson is already here He tilts his head in a hello as I get out of the car; doesn’t register surprise that I aives a half wave and pulls away

Mum had been adamant I should stay home today, but Dad said she couldn’t keep us under her eye all the ti herself this ht, too By the time Aunt Stacey left and we had dinner, she was all contained When Dad got in hours later, you wouldn’t have known she’d ever been upset

Dad certainly says the strangest things

‘I knohat happened to Phoebe’

‘What? Iheavily I’d run as if Lorders were afterto the top of this hill; he barely kept up Until I was exhausted enough to stop, to be able to talk, and know our levels would be in check

‘I saw her’

‘Where?’

‘At the hospital She’s been Slated’

Quickly I tell Ben the events of yesterday I skip the worst bits – not soto think about it enough to describe it – like they are hidden behind a little door, slas want to stay in a dark corner and never come out, and that is just fine with me I’d visualised this intheit with a key Maybe that is the real reason for no nightetvery like he wants to dash up the path I grab his hand to hold hiet about Phoebe,’ I say

‘Are you certain it was her?’

‘Yes’ It was her Because despite her srin of joy I’ve never seen on her face before, I had no doubt

‘So, she’s been Slated But she was just taken by Lorders, what: a week and a few days ago? There couldn’t have been a trial or anything’

‘No’

We walk along the path We should have ages before anyone catches us up: there was no rain to slow things down today, and with last week’s mud mostly dried up noent at speed When we reach the rock, the place we sat last time, Ben stops, sits, pulls ht Says in lad you’re okay I don’t knohat I would do if you disappeared, too’

Disappeared, too…like Tori Though being blown up by terrorists isn’t quite the sa you At least if you are splattered, your fate is obvious Not if no one knows about it

We just sit like we are, not , but the sun is warm on ainst his chest, breathing in da else that is just Ben His breath is onwith mine, and I want to stay here, in this moment, forever

Finally he pulls away a little Face serious

‘Listen Phoebe was fifteen – I checked with a friend of hers So when they took her, they Slated her But what about Tori? She was seventeen And Gianelli – decades older What happened to the about this,’ Ben says, and fear swirls through uts

‘Like what?’

‘Tell people – about Phoebe, at least – since we knohat happened to her What they did to her is illegal Others uess, but they don’t really know, do they?’

I shake o’

‘But hoill things change if no one knows?’

‘No,’ I say

‘But--’

‘No!’ I ju down the path

Ben follows ‘Kyla, I--’

‘No Proue back and forth, and, in the end, the only pro without talking to ain before anyone can catch us up Thudding along the trail, to the place where all I a and both are okay When the end is in sight – our bus and Ferguson ahead – I pull Ben’s hand