SIXTY-ONE
GRANDDAD AND I travel home in the truck in silence. It took two hours in hiding before the Whistleblowers left the house and we felt it was safe to leave. Professor Lambert was wrong about nobody being taken into custody. If it had started out as scaremongering, it didn’t end that way. The Whistleblowers didn’t expect a small percentage of the gathering to defend themselves, to simply not heel to the Whistleblowers’ requests, something I’m sure that I will be blamed for despite the fact that I never even opened my mouth. I believe this is the first time people have risen against them; nobody would dare before. A threat to a Whistleblower is seen as a threat to the Guild’s rules, which in turn is seen as aiding the Flawed cause, therefore, aiding a Flawed. It’s a stretch, but that’s how they justify protection of Whistleblowers.
Six people were taken away in the vans. Four were Flawed who would be punished in accordance with Guild punishments, two may be facing imprisonment for aiding a Flawed. Four more were taken to a hospital for wounds caused at the hands of the Whistleblowers’ batons. Some of Alpha’s greatest “perfect” supporters had turned on her instantly, telling the Guild absolutely anything it wanted to hear to save their own skins. Overall, Alpha’s peaceful “counseling” session had been a disaster. She herself is safe, but only by a breath, and I imagine she is on the watch list. She was shaken when I saw her. She had had a long session with the Whistleblowers, trying to understand what had gone wrong.
Bill’s Whistleblower, Marcus, located Granddad and brought him to me, and I was surprised to learn that he was the person who took Granddad to the bunker in the first place. Granddad and I learned that Marcus was married to a Whistleblower, Cathy, and that they were both on the side of the Flawed campaign. He told me that there were many more of these people and that the numbers were growing, but the numbers in opposition to the Flawed were rising, too. Cathy and he felt things were unsettled even among the Whistleblowers. They were turning on one another, and those who were deemed traitors would be made examples of. Marcus was naturally worried.
I’m angry and still don’t trust Alpha for so many reasons, but on the other hand, the protection of my granddad and the revelation that she and her husband once looked after Carrick in their own home give me reasons to stay on her good side. Her desperation to find him and be reunited with him tells me that she genuinely doesn’t know where he is. I wanted to ask Marcus, the Whistleblower, to help me out, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. If this is a trap, I don’t want to fall into it. I can’t let Crevan know that I’m searching for Carrick. I can’t let him ever know that Carrick was a witness to the sixth brand. That power belongs to Carrick and me alone.
After being briefed on everything, Granddad and I finally leave Alpha’s home and get back on the road. I’m anxious to get home well before my curfew.
“That was Professor Bill Lambert,” Granddad says, checking the mirrors constantly. “I remember him being in the news. He had a contract with the government. He was an old friend of Crevan’s. Reading between the lines, I think Crevan set him up to get rid of him. Crevan’s cousin took over the job. More Crevans everywhere. I think half the reason Alpha gets away with her campaigns is because Crevan feels guilty, if he knows what such a feeling is.”
“I don’t get it. Alpha said she wasn’t using me, but if she wasn’t trying to set me up with the Guild, she was using me to bring Carrick to her. That must have been why she told people I was speaking. If he heard, maybe she thought he’d come.”
“Do you think Carrick would have gone if he’d known you were there?”
“I don’t know.”
“It’s just that, he knows where you are, Celestine. Everyone does. All you have to do is open a newspaper or turn on the TV to see reporters standing outside your house. If he wanted to find you, he would.”
I feel hot as tears spring in my eyes. That has upset me. “Okay, fine,” I snap, “he doesn’t want to find me.”
“No. What I mean is, I hope Crevan hasn’t got to him already, Celestine.”
That’s my fear, too. We continue the journey in silence. But I don’t think Crevan has found him; otherwise, why would he be panicking? I’m the only person left who knows what he did, and he has full control over my every move. I think of what I know of Carrick, of what I’ve learned about him. He’s clever, he’s smart. He must be biding his time.
“I don’t think that you should go home,” Granddad says.