The Resistance

was gnawing at his stomach. Something wasn’t right. Maybe he’d been a little hasty. He hadn’t even spoken to Anna yet. Her signed Declaration was burning a hole in his pocket and he needed to know more than anything why she’d changed her mind.
    Quickly, he turned and he started to retrace his steps. He would tell his grandfather that he needed more time. He would insist that when he chose to sign the Declaration was his own business. But as he turned the corner, he stopped abruptly. His grandfather had disappeared. He ran ahead to the end of the corridor, but when he looked left and right there was no sign of them.
    Annoyed, Peter continued to look around, trying to listen out for the sound of their footsteps, but eventually he had to accept defeat. They had, it seemed, disappeared into thin air.

Chapter Twenty-Two
    Anna watched the guard silently, her eyes wide with dread and fear. She’d been dragged out of Maria’s apartment and thrown in the back of a van; thankfully she’d got Ben back and had been able to persuade the men to take her handcuffs off so that she could cradle him in her arms and shield him from the walls of the van as it careered down the road. Now she was in a darkened room; she didn’t know where it was. The van had pulled up outside a door; the door had led to a corridor; the corridor had led to this room.
    ‘If you don’t shut that thing up, I will,’ snapped the guard.
    She pulled Ben towards her and tried to soothe him; he’d been crying since they arrived.
    ‘He’s hungry,’ she said quietly. ‘He needs some milk.’
    ‘He needs some milk,’ the guard mocked. ‘Just shut him up, or he’ll get more than milk.’
    Anna felt her stomach clench with fear and she quickly put Ben’s thumb in his mouth, which he sucked violently. The lights in the room were dim, disorienting.
    ‘Where’s Maria?’ she asked tentatively. ‘Is she here too?’
    The guard grinned. ‘Maria?’ he asked. ‘Coming here? I doubt it. Maria’s a Catcher.’
    Anna went white. ‘No,’ she said desperately. ‘She can’t . . . She said . . .’
    ‘I’m afraid you can’t trust everthing that people say,’ a voice said as the door opened and another man walked into the room. He was thin-faced, wearing a suit; an air of menace surrounded him.
    ‘Anna Covey?’ he asked.
    She nodded.
    ‘My name is Mr Samuels. I’m Head of Security here at Pincent Pharma. And I’m afraid, Anna, that you’ve got yourself into a spot of bother. We have everything on film, you see.’
    Anna could barely breathe. ‘Everything?’
    ‘Everything.’ Mr Samuels smiled nastily. ‘You were heard plotting to free Surpluses, Anna. Do you know what sentence that crime carries?’
    Anna shook her head.
    ‘I just wanted to help the children,’ she said, tears pricking at her eyes. ‘I thought she wanted to help, too. I thought . . .’
    ‘Enough!’ Mr Samuels barked. ‘You think we’re going to stand by and allow some upstart Surplus to plot against our society, to threaten science and civilisation? We have to protect the rest of society from people like you, Anna. You and that disgusting baby brother of yours don’t deserve to live on the Outside, do you?’
    ‘Not Ben,’ Anna said, her voice quivering. ‘This has nothing to do with him. He’s Legal. He’s innocent.’
    ‘Innocent? Who’s going to look after him if you’re in prison, Anna? Didn’t think of that, did you? Too busy thinking about those dirty Surpluses.’
    Anna felt the blood drain from her face, the dreadful realisation of what she’d done thudding in her head like an avalanche of pain. A buzzing sound emanated from Mr Samuel’s pocket and he pulled out a walkie-talkie.
    ‘I do not want to be disturbed. Do you understand?’ he said, his voice low and irritable. ‘I want two units guarding the main entrance and I want the blackout fixed and unless the four horsemen of the Apocalypse are seen approaching the building, I don’t want any further interruptions, do you understand? Good.’
    He put the device in his pocket and smiled thinly at Anna. ‘Now we’ll just wait for the doctor, shall we?’ he said. ‘Got to give you a medical. See how Useful you’re going to be.’
    ‘Useful?’ Anna’s voice was thin, barely audible. ‘What’s going to happen to me? Where am I going?’
    But Mr Samuels didn’t let her finish; instead, Ben was snatched from her by a guard and Anna was thrust on to the bed before Ben was handed