The Legacy

wasn’t right at all. Trembling, he zoomed in. She was sitting silently on the floor, a baby and a small child in her arms. The baby was crying and Anna’s face was tear-stained. The child was silent, his eyes wide, afraid. Jude moved the camera to see if anyone else was in the room and as it moved Anna glanced up at it, a look of disgust on her face. Then she buried her head in her children’s hair, pulling them more tightly towards her. The door opened and a guard walked in, grabbing her roughly.
    Jude watched in horror, his mind racing. How many other secrets lay buried within these walls? How many more prisoners? He continued to flick through the screens. He found Sheila and had to force himself not to linger, staring at her freckles, her red hair, her frightened yet still determined eyes. He had to focus. He didn’t have much time.
    He gasped. The screen showed a room full of children, then another and another, more and more. Jude moved between the images, his eyes widening. He’d never seen so many children together. There were hundreds of them – ten, twenty to a room – holding each other for comfort, makeshift sanitation in one corner of each room and a bucket of what appeared to be food in the other. Like a farm, Jude thought with a thud. But farms had a purpose. What use would these children be? What sinister plan did Richard Pincent have for them? Jude narrowed his eyes. Whatever the plan, it would be abandoned. He would see to that. His hand moved towards his pocket and he felt for the ring, the ring Richard Pincent so desperately wanted. He took it out and looked at it for a moment, then put it in his mouth.
    The madness would end, Jude resolved.
    Everything would change.
    Mama! Mamanana! Want go home. Want go home, Mamanana.’
    Anna squeezed Ben’s hand and pulled him towards her. ‘Soon,’ she whispered. ‘Soon, my darling.’
    At least Molly was asleep, she thought heavily. At least her daughter wasn’t staring at the grey walls like her and Ben. Back in Pincent Pharma – she’d know this place if she were blindfolded. Everything she’d feared, everything she’d been so desperate to escape was here. It had happened; her nightmare had come true. And yet somehow she felt strangely calm.
    The door opened suddenly and her grip tightened around Ben, who looked up hopefully. ‘Home?’ he asked. ‘Go home?’
    ‘Home!’ The man laughed, then appeared to shake himself. ‘You’re coming with me,’ he said, grabbing Anna and ignoring the children as though he couldn’t bear to look at them. Anna managed to hoist Molly in one arm and take Ben’s hand with her free one. ‘I can walk more easily if you don’t hold me like that,’ she said tightly. ‘It’s not like we’re going to be able to run anywhere, is it? Have you seen how long my brother’s legs are?’
    The guard glanced down at Ben with distaste, then shrugged. ‘Suit yourself,’ he said. ‘But you try anything and you’ll regret it, understand?’
    ‘Where are we going?’ Anna asked.
    ‘None of your business,’ the guard replied. ‘Just follow me.’
    ‘Teter?’ Ben asked as they walked. ‘Teter here?’
    Anna shook her head. ‘No, Ben. Peter isn’t here. He’s with the people who are going to burn this place to the ground. He’s going to rescue us, Ben. Just you wait.’ She spoke loudly; she wanted the guard to know she wasn’t scared. Wanted Ben to know.
    ‘Peter? He’s the other one, isn’t he?’ the guard asked, turning round. ‘The one upstairs?’ He laughed again. ‘Little brat’s right. He is here.’
    Anna felt her heart flip. ‘Here?’ she gasped. ‘No, you’re wrong. He’s not here. He’s –’
    ‘Captured like the rest of them,’ the guard said triumphantly. He stopped and leant down so that his face was only centimetres from Ben’s. ‘Your Peter is an idiot,’ he said, a little smile on his face. ‘He isn’t brave, he’s just stupid. Like your mum here. You should be scared, little fellow, because nothing good’s going to happen to you. Nothing good at all.’
    Ben’s eyes widened and Anna pulled him away. ‘I’m not his mother, I’m his sister,’ she said angrily. ‘And Peter is brave. He’s braver than anyone else I’ve ever met. And if he’s here, that’s a good thing. You’re the one who should be scared, not me, not Ben and not my daughter.’
    She had wanted to protect Ben, reassure him, but as she spoke she realised that she meant every word. She