The Legacy

was fil ed with silence.
    Hil ary looked around glassy-eyed, then focused on Richard’s scientist who was standing next to the door, his face as white as his lab coat.
    ‘So there is no contamination? There’s a virus? It can’t be cured?’ she asked.
    He shook his head. ‘No. Perhaps the symptoms can be al eviated with old medicine, but we’ve carried out hundreds of autopsies and we can’t . . .’ He trailed off, looking slightly il . ‘No,’ he whispered. ‘It can’t be cured.’
    ‘And it affects everyone?’
    ‘Not everyone,’ Pip said gravely. ‘Not Opt Outs. Not Surpluses. Not those whose immune systems have been al owed to function.’
    Hil ary nodded slowly. ‘Then we need to plan,’ she said, only her shaking hands betraying her emotion. ‘We must maintain order. We must organise.’ She studied Pip careful y. ‘How long do we have?’ she asked eventual y.
    ‘Weeks. Months at most,’ Pip said. ‘We need to protect those who wil survive.
    That is paramount.’
    ‘Of course.’ Hil ary nodded. ‘And we need to cope with the bodies . . . logistical y, I mean. We have no graves. No –’
    Derek moved forward. ‘We’ve already drawn up plans for civil management too.
    We don’t want riots. We don’t want mass hysteria. But things are going to get messy. There wil be a shortage of key workers, a shortage of police, of farmers, of gravediggers. There might be terrorist at acks from abroad, war even if people get real y desperate.’
    Hil ary was nodding, as though on autopilot. ‘You’re talking as if the world is coming to an end,’ she managed to say.
    ‘Not an end, a new beginning,’ Pip said gently. ‘A beginning without Longevity. A beginning that has life because it also has death. Hil ary, people have been sick for a long time now, not from disease but from their half-lives – not enough food, not enough energy, not enough things to fil the day. It’s time for Longevity to end. It’s time to end the sickness.’
    Hil ary nodded vaguely. ‘The children – they must be taught. They have to understand so much if they are to . . .’ She trailed off, frowning, as though her brain was trying to process too much information at once. ‘The young must be taught. And quickly,’ she said. Then she fel back against a chair, clutching it, her white knuckles shaking.
    ‘Hil ary,’ Pip said, moving towards her and put ing a hand on her shoulder. ‘They understand more than you know. How to lead, how to provide for themselves, how to fight for what’s right, for what they believe in.’
    He looked over at Jude, at Peter, at Anna and Sheila. ‘I could not be prouder of you,’ he said, his voice catching. ‘Of al of you. Jude, Sheila, Anna – you are al the parents of the new world. A new chance to get things right. Or at least to do things bet er. We have made so many mistakes, ruined so much. You are our hope.’
    ‘We? You’re talking like you won’t be around to help,’ Jude said awkwardly.
    Albert smiled, his blue eyes twinkling. ‘Exactly right, Jude, as always,’ he said.
    ‘You know, I’ve waited for this moment for a very long time,’ he said. ‘As soon as I knew the end was near, I stopped taking my Longevity. It was a release. You mustn’t try to hold on to things that are past their sel -by date. None of us should, including me. Now I just need to say goodbye to you, to make sure you have al you need for the brave new world ahead of you. I have days, perhaps, but no more.’
    ‘But . . . but we need you. The Underground needs you,’ Jude said, fighting back his tears.
    ‘No.’ Pip shook his head. ‘The Underground is over. There is no need for it any more. It has served its purpose. There is a new world to build, Jude, and I know that you are capable of building it.’ He smiled gently. ‘The truth is, I’m looking forward to a very long sleep. The longest.’
    ‘But . . .’ Peter said, shaking his head. ‘You can’t go. You can’t.’
    ‘We al go eventual y,’ Pip said softly. ‘And others come in our wake. I am just a leaf, Peter. Just a leaf fal ing from the tree so that a new bud may grow. Look after the buds, won’t you? And each other. I shal miss you.’
    ‘And we’l miss you,’ Jude said, his voice ful of emotion. ‘But you can depend on us. We’l be the future, Pip. We’l do it together.’ He reached out to Sheila and took her hand.
    ‘Together.’ She nodded tentatively.
    ‘Together,’ Peter agreed, holding out