“That was six months ago?” Ely had asked.
“Yes, how did you know?”
“That was when she handed back her visor,” he had said.
“Ah.” She’d nodded. “It wasn’t easy. And it wasn’t easy persuading her of the truth. Nor was it easy for her to persuade her family to come with us. But it was all in place. We were going to spirit them out, and at the same time we would cripple the Tower. Everyone would discover the truth, and then do with it whatever they wished. We would be long gone. We were going to act today. It was always today, the day of the election. It seemed fitting.”
“We suspected she knew something,” Vauxhall said. “Handing back that visor, not communicating on-net, and then there was the night the camera moved in her room. She was up to something, and we couldn’t allow that.”
“So you wanted me to think it was Penrith? She didn’t recognise the clothing. I just assumed she was lying, but she wasn’t, was she? She had nothing to do with the deaths. She didn’t know Fern or the Greenes. You planted that evidence, because you wanted me to execute someone.”
“She was guilty, Ely,” Vauxhall said. “It was a test to see whether you were up to what comes next. Whether you would be prepared to help lead your people out into this Promised Land.”
“And it was you who shot at me. Or one of you. I suppose you needed me to think the threat was real. You know, it’s almost funny,” Ely said, as he walked around a mound that appeared to be more metal than moss. “You must have spent a long time working out which room could be accessed without someone appearing on the cameras. But then it turned out that the ghosts actually could get into the system and wipe the records. All that effort on your part, all wasted. But because of it, because they died, all the rest of these events occurred. The woman who died in that elevator, her name was Fern, and she was Finnya Greene’s sister. All she wanted to do was get her family out of the Tower. The killing of Gower and Bradford aside, they don’t believe in killing. Even after you murdered her sister, Fern didn’t come after you. She wanted to lead me up to the roof. Fern wanted me to see the truth. She thought that she controlled the elevator. But you still had control of that, Vox. You disconnected the brakes. You caused it to plummet. That’s another death on your hands.”
“Oh, enough,” Arthur snapped. “If you want to count them like that, then there are thousands of deaths on each of our hands. But the scales are balanced by the lives we’ve saved.”
“After Fern’s death,” Robin had said. “I told Gabriel that we shouldn’t kill. That we shouldn’t become like them. I thought he’d taken it to heart. We went back to our original plan. We’d set off the charges, and rescue the children. Gabriel and I went to plant the bombs. On the way back he saw those nurses. I couldn’t stop him. And then he died in that stupid accident. Do you think his death was justice? Do you think it was just?”
“I don’t know,” Ely had replied.
“Twelve thousand people, Ely, the future of our species. Individuals don’t matter, they can’t,” Arthur said.
“Is it just twelve thousand?” Ely asked. “Are there no others?”
“It’s just us,” Vauxhall said. “The Tower, the City of Britain.”
“It was a great nation once,” Arthur said, pointing at the buildings. “I’ve read the books, it controlled the world. From its ruins an even greater nation will arise. With your help.”
“Where were you going to take the children?” Ely had asked.
“We found a farm. It had been abandoned a few seasons before. Crops had grown wild in the fields, but they were there. The buildings were empty, but people had lived in them, and recently. We thought that perhaps we could find them.”
“Now, are you finished with the questions?” Arthur asked. “Because we do have work to do. We need to see if the Tower can be repaired. If it can’t, then we need to act quickly to maintain control of the situation.”
“I’ve one last question,” Ely said.
“What?” Arthur snapped impatiently.
“If there are no ships being built, then what is it that everyone’s doing in the Assemblies?”
“Keeping busy. Keeping occupied. Staying useful,” Arthur said. “That’s all anyone ever wants out of life, isn’t it? To be safe, to be comfortable and to have a purpose.”
“I see.” Ely glanced between Vauxhall and Arthur. Then he looked up. A solitary bird flew out of the window above him. It circled overhead once before coming to settle on a twisted lamppost.
“So, unless there’s anything else, it’s time to make your choice,” Arthur said. “I told you that time was coming. I gave you that gun. I see you’ve still got it. So join us, or shoot us now. It is time for you to choose.”
Ely took another step. He was thirty yards away from the door to the tunnel. Arthur was closest, at around twenty yards away. Vauxhall stood ten feet behind and a dozen feet to the right of the old man. Both, he noted, still had their hands behind their backs.
Slowly he moved his hand to the pistol at his waist. As he did, he saw both Arthur and Vauxhall visibly relax. He took the gun out, then tossed it through a broken window.
Arthur looked surprised. Vauxhall looked relieved.
“What now?” Ely asked, he took another step forwards. “I mean, if you want Vauxhall to lead the people, what happens to you?”
“Like I said, the Tower was my life. I’ll stay, once everyone else has left.”
Ely stopped, suddenly, and stared at the ground.
“What’s that?” he wondered out loud, as he bent down.
“It’s a beguiling story,” Ely had said, as he’d raised the pistol again. “And I can see that some of it’s true. But how much? You’ve no proof that Fern was Finnya Greene’s sister. And if there ever was any, it’s now been destroyed.”
“Proof? You want proof? You want more proof than that what you can see? If you pull that trigger, you will die. That’s not a threat. It’s a fact. The gun’s rigged. Where do you think we learned about explosives? Out in the wild? We were taught by that old man. There’s a button on the side. If you press it, the magazine will come out. At least if it was real gun with proper ammunition in it, it would.”
Ely looked down at the pistol.
“Try it,” she had said. “It’s not a trick.” She’d raised her hands, and this time Ely saw they were empty.
He’d pressed the button. The magazine fell, but only by half an inch. Carefully, he’d pulled it out. There were no cartridges, just something wrapped in silver coloured plastic, with two wires leading from it back into the body of the pistol.
“They’ve tried that before,” she had said.
“Why me?” he’d asked. “Why are you telling me? Why did you want me to follow you?”
“I told you, we only came back because of Finnya’s family. I’m going to honour her wishes and take the children somewhere safe. As for you, for at least the last five years you have been culpable in all the deaths this Tower has caused. But you were an unwitting accomplice, Ely, a prisoner like all the others. We decided we would give you back your life, we were curious to see what you would do with it.”