‘So glad you came along, Prime Minister; lovely to see you as always,’ Astrid says to Gregory. ‘But things were well under control.’
Gregory raises an eyebrow. ‘Really? What, exactly, is it that is under control? What operation were you conducting here without my knowledge? Did you know anything about it?’ he says to Coulson.
‘Not a thing through any official channels. Luckily, my unofficial sources are rather good.’
‘Well. If my head of security knows nothing officially, and I know nothing, how should I take this?’
Astrid is pale. ‘I learned of this plot to discredit the glorious Central Coalition with lies. They were attempting to hijack our television transmission and broadcast it across the country tonight. I’ve been protecting you, on a need-to-know basis.’
So Lorders use that phrase, too.
Gregory shrugs. ‘I may not need to know, but if Coulson doesn’t know, how can that decision be made?’
She starts to speak again, but he holds up a hand. ‘Be silent. I’m reserving judgement until I learn more. I’ve decided that I need to know.’ His voice is icy, and Astrid is growing paler, but as much as I enjoy her discomfort, what has this got to do with us? They’re all Lorders.
‘You see, dear Astrid, I learned a few things I think I did need to know. Dr Lysander here – she was a friend of my daughter’s, did you know that? – came to me with some very interesting information. She was very persistent about getting in to see me, and when she told me about one of your special projects, I could see why. Slating is a legally sanctioned criminal punishment to be applied only according to due process of law, as you well know. Not to orphans under the age of legal responsibility.
‘And then we unearthed some information about your unofficial training camps. This is two of them?’ He gestures at Ben, and Tori’s body. ‘Selected for special abilities, subjected to experimental procedures. Trained and twisted.’ He shakes his head.
‘All within my ambit as JCO,’ Astrid says.
‘I doubt even you believe that. And then we’ve been piecing some more things together. And worked out some of what you’ve done to my daughter. And granddaughter.’
Gregory turns. Why is he looking at me? He’s blond of course, though grey-streaked now, but up close I see something I haven’t noticed before when I’ve seen him on TV or in photos: his eyes. Green eyes. The same shade as mine. Everyone is looking at me.
His granddaughter? Me? No. It couldn’t be.
Could it?
A siren approaches; paramedics enter. At Dr Lysander’s direction they take Skye and Ben away, and Tori’s body. Aiden’s arm is broken, but he refuses to leave. They strap his arm to his chest, check Mac’s injuries, then leave.
‘This is ridiculous,’ Astrid says. ‘They are traitors and should be dealt with as such.’
‘That may be. I’m still deciding. For now, I want to watch this transmission you stopped.’
‘It’s in my camera,’ I say. I point to it on the floor, where it fell when I tackled Astrid.
Coulson takes it, checks it and hands it to Gregory. My grandfather?!
‘Are we ready now? Shall we?’ He projects it on the wall.
We all watch it silently; this time, I don’t look away. I stare at Florence’s eyes just before she dies, standing there, facing them down. Did she feel like I did with Nico at that moment?
All are silent when it ends. Gregory finally turns to Astrid.
‘Astrid Connor, your actions have been unacceptable. Further investigations are necessary.’ He gestures at Coulson. ‘Take her away, and then leave us.’
After they’re gone, the door shut behind them, Gregory turns to me. ‘Can you record on this thing?’ he says, holding out the camera in his hand.
‘Yes.’
He hands it over. ‘Get ready.’
I set it to record, hold up the camera. Hands surprisingly steady.
He begins.
‘This is Merton Gregory, your Prime Minister, head of the Central Coalition Government. I’ve learned some news that has disturbed me greatly.
‘Many of you may know that in the riots over thirty years ago, one of the students who was sentenced to execution was my daughter, Samantha Gregory. At the time I was deputy to then Prime Minister Armstrong; he offered to intervene and pardon her. I didn’t allow him to save her, convinced the only way forward from the grip violent chaos had on our country was to apply the law in all cases. This is something I regretted my entire life, and is part of the reason why I always protected the rule of law at all costs when I became Prime Minister myself: if I didn’t, her loss was meaningless. And I have been wilfully blind at times in ways I now regret.
‘I have recently learned that my daughter was not executed, but this was not an act of leniency or kindness. There are more details I have yet to unearth as to where she was taken, or if she even still lives. But I have discovered I have a granddaughter I knew nothing of, a girl whose only crime has been being related to me, the punishment given for this beyond anything the rule of law could condone.
‘You’re about to watch some very difficult scenes. I’m sorry, but you need to know.
‘In light of what you are about to see, I feel I have no choice but to resign as Prime Minister. The government will be dissolved and an election called. Change is long overdue. The Lorders served their purpose at the time; their time is over.
‘All right, that’ll do. I’m done,’ he says.
I hit stop record, lower the camera. My eyes find Aiden’s. Is this really happening?
Gregory turns to Mac and Aiden. ‘Now: can you get this out tonight before I change my mind? And we better use your hijacked system. I’m not sure this would get past the Lorder censors, even with my direct order. They might have me committed.’
That evening Mac does quick checks and repairs the damage to his transmission equipment that Astrid’s Lorders inflicted when arresting him and Aiden.
Dr Lysander draws me aside, bandages the cut on my cheek.
‘Tell me: how did you find out who I am?’
‘Deduction, and guesswork.’ She sighs. ‘Really, I’m embarrassed it took me so long.’
‘Tell me.’
‘Deduction: I was thinking about everything that has been done and manipulated in your life; the classified DNA set in the system so none could trace it, set by Astrid as it turns out. Who you really were had to be an important part of the puzzle. And guesswork: how I always thought I knew you.’
‘You said I reminded you of a friend, one who died.’
‘Not just a friend.’ She pulls on a chain around her neck, and out of her clothes comes a gold locket. She opens it. ‘Inside here? A lock of hair. From a girl I loved years ago, who was meant to have been executed in the riots. Gregory’s daughter, Samantha. When you cut your leg after your recent visit, on impulse I swabbed the blood you left behind for DNA. Later, feeling foolish for doing so, I compared DNA between that and this lock of hair. However she survived, Sam is your mother.’
‘And you went to Gregory and told him about me?’
‘Just so.’
‘Where is my mother? Is she still alive?’
‘I hope so. Gregory is working on that.’
‘But how did he link us to Astrid?’
‘Thanks to you. Telling me that the orphanage you visited was in Cumbria. It didn’t take Gregory long to link first the orphanage, then his daughter’s disappearance, to Astrid. She must have seen this opportunity with Sam: the ultimate way to discredit Gregory. He was the obvious next Prime Minister after Armstrong; Astrid wasn’t in position to take power yet when she arranged Armstrong’s assassination. She was a long-range planner.’
‘I don’t understand. What use was Sam to Astrid?’
‘She probably thought at the time that she’d use Sam when she was ready, to make it look as if Gregory broke the law to save his daughter. Then later on, when you appeared, she came up with an even better plan: having Gregory’s own granddaughter make a sham of Slating, and assassinate both Gregory and Armstrong’s daughter at the same time. How far back she was putting this in place we do not know; it must have been at least since you were ten, when she arranged through Nico for the AGT to take you.’
‘If her plans had worked that day, Lorders wouldn’t know who might turn – which Slateds were safe or dangerous.’
‘Astrid’s views are notoriously hardline. She prefers the death penalty to Slating. A clean sweep of existing Slateds wouldn’t have troubled her, and she would have been the obvious next Prime Minister if Gregory had been killed. But you thwarted her plans.’
‘Because I ran back to save you. I wasn’t there, next to Gregory and the others, when they meant to set off the bomb hidden on my Levo.’
‘Yes. And since then I’ve learned more from Gregory. That by then Coulson was suspicious of you, who you were: he’d noticed irregularities in your records. When the bomb went off at your house he took the opportunity to fake your death, to stop any possible AGT interference while he looked into it.’
‘But how did you find us here today?’
‘Gregory has been having Astrid watched. When she came south in force, we knew something big was up. We closed in.’
‘Just in time.’
Dr Lysander smiles. ‘Yes. Thankfully, just in time.’
I turn it all over in my mind, but keep coming back to two things. I was just a baby when I was taken from a mother I never heard about until today. Where is she? Is she even alive? And then there is Ben.
‘What is going to happen to Ben?’
‘I don’t know. He has committed crimes, though under coercion perhaps.’
‘Where is he now?’
‘He’s been taken to hospital for assessment and observation.’
‘When can I see him?’
‘I’m not sure that is wise. For either of you.’
Mac has added Gregory’s new introduction to Need to Know. It is 9 pm, three hours later than planned, when it hits every television, viewing and vid screen in this country and others. Can so much really have happened in such a short time?
I stand, awkward and uncertain, next to Aiden while it runs; the pain from his arm is showing on his face, but his eyes are gleaming. ‘We did it, Kyla. We really did it.’ He smiles, but his eyes slide from me to Gregory and back again.
When it is over, Gregory glances at Aiden and Mac. ‘Leave us alone for a moment,’ he says, in a voice used to being obeyed.
But things have changed. They look to me.
‘It’s fine. Go,’ I say, staring at Gregory while they leave. My grandfather; a stranger. Someone I used to hate with every beat of my heart for what he stood for, yet someone who unexpectedly saved my life. Saved us all.
He raises an eyebrow. ‘Do I pass inspection?’
I shrug. ‘I don’t know. There is good and bad.’
‘And you’re not sure which is the greater.’
‘Exactly. Are you really resigning?’
‘Isn’t that what I said? Yet you seem sceptical.’ He looks pleased.
I shrug. ‘Maybe this is just a way to get out of blame. Defeat Astrid, blame things on her, rebrand the party and start over again.’
‘Politics loves a scapegoat.’ He shrugs. ‘That’d probably work. You’ve got a suspicious mind. Maybe you got that from me.’
‘And?’
‘No. I’m done. The country can start over again without me. I’m not proud of things that have been done in my government’s name. I’m not proud of things I’ve done myself. I can’t change the past, but I will do what I can now to ease the political changes. But what I really wanted to say to you is this: I’m sorry.’