‘You have four brothers?’ he asked. ‘Whenever I broach the subject of your family you never want to talk about them.’
Flick had to shut the subject down quickly but she was no longer thinking clearly. The best she could offer was a shrug. ‘It’s a conversation for another day.’
Inside, she quietly feared there might not be many days left for her in Aldeburgh.
Chapter 49
CHARLIE, MANCHESTER
Charlie wasn’t aware a courier had dropped the plain white box onto his desk until he removed his virtual-reality headset. It was the only time he had requested post to be delivered to the office, so he was aware of its contents. He knocked it to the floor and pushed it under the desk with his foot when Milo approached. His parcel was not Milo’s concern.
‘Are you coming for lunch?’ asked Milo and Charlie declined.
‘I have some stuff I need to sort out,’ he replied vaguely.
‘Okay, tomorrow then? We should try that new Mexican restaurant in the Trafford Centre.’
‘Sure.’
It had been days since they’d last shared food together and Charlie wondered if Milo was aware that he was being kept at arm’s length. It wouldn’t matter if he had because it was likely Charlie would be leaving Manchester in the next couple of days and on his way to a safe house.
He fumbled for the box and found it next to the emergency backpack he kept hidden under the desk. Since the recall message, he had left one in his cubicle, a second in the hotel suite and another under bushes by a disused section of a canal towpath. A fourth was stored in a lockerin the People’s History Museum. Each contained basic necessities that would assist in making his escape from Manchester easier. However, he had held back from confirming his return following the notice until other Minders had posted confirmation that they too were leaving. There was too much to give up here until it was absolutely necessary.
Moments later and in the privacy of a toilet cubicle, Charlie unpacked the Match Your DNA testing kit from the box, removed the mouth swab, moved it around his tongue and cheeks, placed it inside a test tube and stuck a new adhesive label to the front. Later, he would slip it into the post-room to arrive at its destination by the next morning.
Before leaving the bathroom, he logged into the ReadWell message board to check if the fourth of seven recall notices had gone live. Instead, he spied a new one from someone posting under the name of Ariel.
The stubble on Charlie’s chin bristled as he rubbed at it, puzzled. Any reference to Julius Caesar meant a Minder suspected a trap. But suspecting one and there actually being one were two very different things. And they were the contrast between Charlie leaving or remaining where he was and suffering the consequences. By now, he should be concerned. Yet he felt nothing.
He slipped outside, careful to avoid Milo’s eagle eye, and chose a small cafe in a side street to eat lunch alone. As he waited for his order, he took his mind off Ariel’s warning by considering what the results of the DNA test might be. His last account was deleted when he entered the programme but yesterday, he’d arrived at work hours before everyone else and used an empty computer terminal to access a virtual private network. There, he created an encrypted and untraceable third-party email address, followed by a brand-new account. It was where the results would be sent.
It was Alix who had reignited his interest in finding if he’d been Matched. The more time they spent together, themore he realised how perfect she would be for him if his circumstances were different. Ifhewere different. She was everything he could want – warm, witty, attractive, intelligent, a good conversationalist, maternal and driven. Yet she was not enough. Perhaps the only person who could make him feel again had registered with Match Your DNA in his absence. Maybe they were waiting for him and soon he could experience that euphoric rush of love so many boasted of.
It struck him that if he were being recalled and Alix and his new circle of friends were to vanish from his life overnight, he’d be unlikely to miss them. He would simply move on and make new friends, and remain just as emotionally detached from them too.
He logged back on to ReadWell and reread Ariel’s message a handful of times. What was she trying to tell him? ‘Need a little extra space,’ he said aloud, and on the fourth time of reading it, he noticed she had left two keystrokes between ‘extra’ and ‘space’. Charlie returned to the original recall message, then the second and third and spotted the second space between the words ‘Two’ and ‘Kinsmen’ in the first. Computer-generated messages did not make errors like that.
Slowly, he nodded his head as he understood Ariel was trying to warn them. A complete stranger he was unlikely to meet might have just saved his life.
Sleep did not come easily to Charlie that night. But at some point, he must have drifted off because he was awoken in the morning by Alix’s voice coming up the stairs. ‘Which drawer do you keep the tea towels in?’ she asked.
‘I’m not sure,’ he yawned.
‘You’ve been living here for three weeks, haven’t you dried any dishes yet? If we ever share a place together, that’ll be the first thing to change.’
Alix was red-faced when she returned to the bedroom moments later carrying mugs of tea. ‘Not that I mean wearegoing to move in together,’ she continued. ‘Just in case you think I’m one of those women who after a few weeks of dating is already picking her wedding dress and the colour of the nursery.’
Charlie pulled back the duvet and she climbed into bed again. ‘I’m not worried,’ he replied. And he wasn’t. Because whatever he had with Alix was not going to last. He no longer had the capacity for love and eventually, she would see that. But for the moment, his performance as a keen boyfriend was perfectly convincing.
He had ruled out any plans to leave Manchester for now, but it was never far from his mind that somebody out there had tried to lure the Minders to the safe house. For what purpose, he did not know. But it wasn’t likely to be a positive one.
He and Alix had barely spent a night apart in their time as a couple. She was smitten with him. He didn’t find her company unpleasant, but like everything else, it was neither offensive nor non-offensive. She had made no complaints about his performance in the bedroom; his lack of sex drive was easily remedied by over-the-counter medication. And ejaculation came as a result of physical stimulation, not emotional. But even his orgasms didn’t bring about their typical rush of pleasure.
Alix’s phone pinged with a news alert. ‘Look at this,’ she began and showed him the screen. ‘It says Sweden is bracing itself to be held to ransom by the Hacking Collective. Dad was telling me we should withdraw all our bank savings because Britain will be next.’
‘The Hackers can try but they won’t succeed,’ Charlie replied flippantly.
‘Why not?’
