The Resistance

Maybe he thinks I’m too young to know what I want.’
    Anna moved towards him, put her arms around his neck. ‘Don’t listen to him. You’d never sign the Declaration,’ she whispered forcefully. ‘I know you wouldn’t.’
    Peter turned his head and looked at her for a moment, remembering how convinced she’d been when he first met her that Surpluses were a Burden on Mother Nature, that it was their duty to work hard, to serve Legal people, to pay for their Sin of existence. He pulled her head down and kissed the top of it. ‘Of course I wouldn’t,’ he mouthed, stroking her hair. ‘We’ll grow old and wrinkly and have children. And we’ll put an end to Longevity too, I promise.’

Chapter Eleven
    Jude lay in bed, frown lines etched into his forehead. The Underground hadn’t contacted him again, and it was eating at him. He’d convinced himself that their little visit had been part of an initiation process, that he’d simply had to prove himself, that any day now they’d contact him again, tell him how he could help. So he’d waited for them, staring at his computer screen willing it to show a message from them, taken his mini-com with him everywhere just in case he was out when they got in touch. But it was all for nothing. There were no signals, no suggestion that he had made any impact on them at all. Peter Pincent they helped; Peter Pincent they cared about enough to get out of Grange Hall. Jude, on the other hand – who had real skills that might be useful to them – they weren’t interested in. No wonder his dad had said the Underground were a bunch of losers.
    Doing his best to swallow his disappointment, Jude got up and turned on his computer. It was 11 a.m. – time to start the day. He didn’t care about the Underground, he told himself. He didn’t need them. Until recently, he had barely registered their existence. Until recently, he hadn’t even known about Peter, about having a half-brother. And he was happy to forget all about them both. More than happy.
    Without thinking, he sat back low in his chair, hacked into the Pincent Pharma security system and brought up an image of Pincent Pharma on his screen. So much for Peter’s gratitude towards the Underground – now he was working for their sworn enemy, Pincent Pharma. Served them right, Jude thought to himself. They should pick their friends more carefully.
    He stared at the screen and imagined Peter inside, wondered what he was doing. Sometimes he hated him. Poor old unlucky Peter Pincent whose legality had been snatched away from him, who had grown up with nothing, who had been brave and fearless, who newspapers seemed obsessed with. Like he was dangerous or something. Like he had some hidden powers. He was a Surplus, that was all. If he’d been born just a couple of months earlier . . . well, things would have been different. Very different. Legal status wasn’t all it was cracked up to be in Jude’s opinion. Peter should try growing up with a father who resented him and a mother who only had you to get one over her lover’s wife. Then he’d know what ‘unlucky’ really meant.
    Pushing the thought from his mind, he turned back to the screen. Across the front of the building, the words ‘Pincent Pharma’ blazed out, making Jude shift uncomfortably. Pincent. The Pincents. It was a name that carried such weight, that everyone in the world knew. Pincent Pharma, the most powerful company. And now there was Peter Pincent, the Surplus who escaped.
    Curious suddenly, Jude delved further into the security system, looking for more images, surveillance of the inside of the building. Perhaps he’d see Peter walking along a corridor, or working, doing whatever it was he did in there. Jude couldn’t see the appeal of a job like that, working inside a rabbit warren with cameras everywhere. Actually, Jude couldn’t really see the appeal of a job full stop – having to get up every morning and do as someone else told you. The whole point of being grown-up, in Jude’s opinion, was doing what you wanted.
    Quickly, he brought up more images, trying to track Peter down. But it was pointless – there were as many cameras in Pincent Pharma as there were Authorities’ edicts on energy consumption and Jude figured it would take hours to look at them all. Sighing, he decided to give up. But as he moved his mouse to close the window, he frowned. On his screen was the image of a girl. About his age, maybe a bit younger. Jude hadn’t