Acid (17 page)

‘So, was it a good meeting?’ I say as we go back downstairs. ‘Did you sort everything out?’

‘Oh, yes,’ she says airily. ‘We were just discussing the watch rotas and what sort of things we wanted Jacob to get next time he goes out to buy food, boring stuff like that.’

I nod, my heart sinking. But what did I expect? That she’d tell me,
Yes, we were planning where to plant explosive devices so that we can kill hundreds of ACID agents and innocent members of the public?

You have to stop them
, a little voice inside my head says. But
how
? The only way I have of contacting ACID right now is to walk up to an agent and do it in person. Not an option. And I don’t even know when this rally is. Maybe if Max and I can get away and find a PKP . . .

‘Oh!’ I say when we get back down to the children’s library. ‘I forgot – there’s something I need to ask Jacob.’

‘I’ll go if you want,’ Elyn says. ‘What did you want to ask him?’

‘Don’t worry, I’ll do it,’ I tell her, giving her another fake smile.

‘OK. I’m going to make some coffee. D’you want a cup?’

‘That’d be lovely, thanks,’ I say. I glance at Max, who’s standing behind the others.

Be careful
, he mouths at me.

CHAPTER 24

I THINK ABOUT
going up to the meeting room first, to see if the box containing the device and the plan is still there, or if I can find any other evidence of what Jacob and the others are planning to do. Then I remember Lukas is on watch just metres away.
The best thing is to act like you were planning to leave tonight all along
, I think as I head up to the top floor.
Be casual about it. Jacob knows you don’t want to stay anyway, so what’s the problem?

The corridor leading to his room is even darker than I remember. I feel as if the walls are leaning towards me as I walk down it and knock on his door.

There’s no answer. I peer through the little window in the top, but the glass is too grimy for me to see anything through it except for the flicker of glolamps.

I knock again, and try the handle.

It’s open.

I push the door with my fingertips. It swings inwards silently. ‘Hello?’ I say quietly, but I can already see the room’s empty. The strange drawings on the walls leer at me as I step inside, looking around. It looks just as it did on the day Max and I arrived, with blankets in a crumpled heap on the bed and piles of books everywhere.

I glance back at the open door behind me. Where is Jacob? Perhaps he’s gone out to buy food already. Crossing to the bed, I crouch down and look underneath it for the strongbox. Jacob has the key, of course, but I might be able to force it with something. I
have
to get the gun and our cards back.

But the box isn’t there. I straighten up, looking around the room. Then I begin to search the desk, carefully lifting up piles of paper and placing them back down in what I hope is their original position. I slide drawers open and shut. The box is nowhere.
Shit
.

I turn my attention to the piles of books along the back wall, moving them a few at a time. Jacob’s obviously hidden the box, but where? Christ, I hope he hasn’t got it with him.

I reach the bottom of one book pile and am about to start on the next when, suddenly, I get a prickling feeling across the back of my neck, like I’m being watched. My heart hammering, I turn, expecting to see Jacob standing in the open doorway, but there’s no one there.

Chill out
, I think, letting out a slow, shaky breath. I shake my head and carry on searching through the books.

Nearby I hear a soft
click
.

I jerk my head up, my heart hammering again. The noise came from my right, near the end of the bed, but at first, I can’t see anything. Then part of the wall begins to move outwards. It’s a door, I realize, camouflaged by those weird drawings.

‘Looking for something,
Sarah
?’ a voice says as it opens.

Jacob’s standing on the other side, smiling at me.

CHAPTER 25

HE’S HOLDING THE
strongbox in his hands. I stare at him, my heart beating unpleasantly fast. He stares back.

I give myself a mental shake. ‘Mikey and I want to leave tonight,’ I say, squaring my shoulders. ‘We’d like the gun and our c-cards back.’

‘Would you,’ Jacob says. It’s a statement, not a question.

I curl my hands, which are down by my sides, into fists. ‘Yes,’ I tell him.

‘Why the hurry,
Sarah
?’ he says. ‘ACID don’t know you’re here. You’re as safe at the library as you are anywhere.’

In what universe?
I think. ‘We want to leave,’ I repeat, trying to keep my voice steady. ‘Like I told you, we need to get to our friends. And you know my name’s Mia, so why don’t you just call me that?’ I’m sick of him sneering
Sarah
at me.

Jacob steps through the doorway. Behind him I see a little sink and a chemical toilet like the one downstairs. ‘Very protective of Mikey, aren’t you?’ he says, putting the box down on the end of the bed.

‘He’s my . . .’ I swallow. ‘Boyfriend.’

Jacob nods slowly. ‘Have you heard of the NAR?’ he asks.

I blink.

‘The NAR, Mia. Have you heard of it?’

‘Um, no,’ I say, and then I realize I
have
. That lightffiti I saw in Outer, and on the wall when we were on the train here, and on the building across from the library. ‘You mean Nar?’

Jacob gives a little laugh, as if I’ve just said something amusing. ‘That’s another name for us, I suppose.’

I frown. ‘For
us
?’

‘For the New Anarchy Regiment,’ Jacob says. He rolls up his right sleeve, twisting his arm towards me so I can see the tattoo I caught a glimpse of on our first day here. It’s an ‘A’ and an ‘R’, black letters in a red circle – a heavily stylized version of the logo of the Anarchy Regiment. I used to see it all the time at Mileway. Forty years ago, when the Anarchy Regiment were at their peak, they carried out dozens of bomb attacks and shootings every year, usually targeting ACID but inevitably killing innocent civilians as well. ACID clamped down, and they went quiet, but never really disappeared completely. Then, in 2085, they carried out a series of bomb attacks on schools. Hundreds of people, most of them children, died. After that, ACID launched a massive two-year-long operation to round them up. About half of Mileway’s population was made up of ex-AR members.

But it looks like ACID didn’t get everyone.

The scene I witnessed in the meeting room takes on a new, even more sinister significance. Jacob and the others aren’t just some random group of bomb-happy ACID-haters; they’re the AR reborn: the NAR, who are
obviously
in London too; who could be
everywhere
for all I know, quietly growing like fungus in dark city backstreets and run-down buildings. Just the thought of it sends chills down my spine.

I remember what Paul said that first night we were here, when Shaan nudged him to shut him up.
I met Jacob in Manchester when I was squatting in an abandoned apartment block. He was recr—

Recruiting. He’d been going to say recruiting.

Another chill threads down my spine.

‘So you have heard of us?’ Jacob says, and I realize I must be wearing my shock and dismay all over my face.

‘Kind of,’ I say, trying to compose myself.
God, most of them are so young
, I think, picturing innocent-looking Amy and Jack, bubbly Neela and thoughtful Shaan. And fragile, pretty Elyn.

‘There are groups of us all over the country,’ he says. ‘ACID have no idea we exist. We’re going to rise up, and this time, we’re going to take them down.’

I stare at him again. I have no idea what to say.

‘Just think, Mia,’ he says. ‘We could go back to what this country was like before ACID.’

‘You weren’t around then,’ I say numbly. ‘None of you were. How do you even
know
what it was like?’

‘I know, all right,’ Jacob says. ‘People could choose who was in power. They didn’t have to watch the damn news screens all day. Food wasn’t rationed. The IRB wasn’t isolated from other countries. Do you know they even had something called the internet, where you could
exchange
information and connect with people all over the
world
? It’s still out there, but we don’t have it. And if ACID stay in power, we never will.’

I frown. I found out about a lot of stuff that ACID had got rid of or changed from Dylan, but he’d never told me about that.

‘So you think that’s going to work?’ I say. ‘Taking the country back to how it was before ACID by bombing the hell out of—’

Too late, I realize what I’ve said. I clap a hand over my mouth. Another smile spreads across Jacob’s face, slow and reptilian. ‘Quite the little eavesdropper, aren’t you?’ he says.

I glance at the door, wondering if I can run fast enough to get back downstairs to Max and get us the hell out of here without Jacob catching us. But Jacob sees me looking. In two steps, he crosses the room, blocking my escape route.

‘It’s OK,’ he says. ‘I expected you’d spy on us. I
wanted
you to. That’s why we chose a room with a door that didn’t fit properly. Usually, we meet down in the children’s library.’

Despite the voice in my head that’s screaming at me to duck round him, wrestle him away from the door and get out of here
now
, I hesitate. ‘You what?’

‘I wanted you to know what was going on here,’ he says. ‘About what we’re going to do.’

My mouth tastes bitter. ‘What exactly
are
you going to do?’ I say. ‘Apart from murder people, that is?’

‘There’s an ACID rally in Manchester in two weeks’
time,’
Jacob says. ‘Two thousand agents— Oh, wait.’ He smiles again. ‘You heard that bit, didn’t you?’

He yawns, rolling his shoulders, before he continues, ‘They’re holding it in the central ceremony square. General Harvey’s going to be there. We plan to plant explosives at strategic points around its edge so that when the rally’s at its height, they’ll go off.’ He digs in his pocket and brings out a piece of paper. When he unfolds it and hands it to me, I realize it’s the plan he was showing the others earlier. It’s a map of the city, with a zoomed-in plan of the square and the surrounding streets at the top. Unlike London, there only seems to be one square. The rest of the city is divided into roughly rectangular zones marked
RESIDENTIAL, COMMERCIAL & BUSINESS
and
EDUCATION, CULTURE & LEISURE
.

I look at the plan of the square. As I heard Jacob tell the others earlier, there are red crosses marked on it with their names beside them.

And in the bottom left-hand corner of the square, I see he’s written
Declan and Sarah
.

I go cold all over.

‘No,’ I say. ‘No way. We’re not getting involved with this.’

‘Really,’ Jacob says, plucking the sheet of paper out of my fingers. ‘That’s funny.’

‘What is?’ I say.

‘That you should have developed morals all of a sudden.’

‘Why?’ I say, narrowing my eyes.

‘Because I’d have thought if anyone was up for a killing spree,’ he says, ‘it’d be you, Jenna Strong.’

CHAPTER 26

JENNA STRONG
.

My real name echoes in my ears.

He knows who I am
.

For once, I can’t be cool or tough. I can’t even pretend. I gaze at Jacob. ‘How did you—’

‘I see the news screens when I go out to pick up food.’ He shrugs. ‘ACID are going crazy looking for you and Max Fisher, you know. They’ve put the reward for finding you up to seventy-five thousand kredz.’

My legs feel like they might be about to give way beneath me. Slowly, I sit down on the chair beside the desk.

‘Jenna, Jenna, Jenna,’ he says. ‘The most wanted girl in the IRB, and she’s right here in front of me.’

‘Don’t tell Max,’ I say. ‘He doesn’t know.’

‘Of course,’ Jacob says. ‘You killed his dad as well, didn’t you?’

‘No,’ I tell him. ‘It was ACID – his dad was the one who got me out of jail and an agent shot him.’

‘So why don’t you just tell him that?’

Because he’s convinced that Jenna Strong
did
do it. Because I’ve lied to him so much already that there’s no way he’ll believe
me
. Because I still don’t know
why
his dad helped me
. There are so many reasons, I can’t pick one.

‘Why do you want us to get involved with your bomb plot?’ I say. ‘You could give us up, claim the reward. Seventy-five thousand kredz is a fortune.’

Jacob sits down on the bed, regarding me coolly. ‘Like I said, our movement is growing. We have cells all over the country, planning action on many levels, whether it be vandalism, graffiti, inciting riots, or what we’re planning to do next month. Anything to stir up discontent and make the public question ACID’s authority. But we lack a figurehead – someone who will inspire people to join us and take up our cause.’

‘So . . . what,
I’m
that person?’ I say.

He shakes his hair out of his face. ‘You’re notorious, Jenna. You killed one of the most senior ACID agents in the country – and he was your own father. Think what it would mean if someone like you was helping to coordinate our attacks and train up new followers, for example. People would look up to you. The NAR would be unstoppable.’

A cold, sick sensation is stealing through me. ‘For your information, my parents’ deaths were an accident,’ I tell him. ‘I’m not a murderer. And I certainly don’t want to be your
figurehead
.’ I spit the last word at him like a poison dart.

‘Are you sure? You’ll be paid. I’ll even see what I can do about moving you and Max into more private living quarters while you’re here at the library, if you like. And
of
course, you’ll have protection from ACID – I’ll make absolutely sure of that. What do you say? Help us with the Manchester rally, and I’ll take you to meet some of my associates and we can work out exactly what your role should be and where you and Max should stay.’