Citizen

Chapter nineteen

James' hand gripped the table so hard the edge of it turned red. "When I said it wasn't like that I meant it; you had nothing to do with my job. I was assigned to gather information on my parents." His eyes were intent on hers, but she looked away, ignoring his words.

"This isn't your job, James. It's your escape. You always wanted to be free and this lets you." Kyra smoothed hair back from her hot skin.

"You think I chose this? It was forced on me." The words were spat through gritted teeth. She looked at James' clenched knuckles on the table, at the tightness of his jaw, at the wide and open eyes. It made her heart ache, and not because of the betrayal. He'd never been angry like that before. "Maybe it is an escape, but it's also my family. These people are the only ones who understand me - they know how hard it is to lie to everyone you love."

Kyra dropped into a seat. "Speaking of family, how did you receive it? From what the Commander said it was a genetic thing, but I'm guessing your parents don't have it if you spy on them."

"No, they don't. No one in my family does aside from Ashley and I." James leaned back in his seat, faking nonchalance as he stared at the table. "My father isn't my father."

"What?" She leaned across the table, eyes wide. "Do you know who it is?"

"No, and I don't plan on finding out. It won't change anything."

Kyra watched his face for any flicker of emotion; a shift in his eyes, a tremble of his lip, anything - but it remained blank. "You can't be serious."

"I am."

Sighing, she moved onto her next question. "The Commander, he mentioned a mission. What is it?"

James raised his eyebrows in surprise, but in a blink he'd regained his composure. "To rebuild the world without walls, bracelets or drugs. For everyone to have free will."

Kyra scoffed. "Otherwise known as creating World War Four."

"Not really, not if you think about it. World War Three was four hundred years ago and we're still recovering from it. It nearly wiped out entire races and countries, and in the aftermath our world fell into ruins, with the only survivors banning together to bring down the government. In order to keep the human race alive and untainted, they created our society."

"So it's true then, we were the sole survivors of a disease we created," Kyra murmured, furrowing her brows.

"They couldn't see a way around it. After the other humans found out about our society, they planned to destroy it, but the government couldn't let that happen." James let out a sharp breath, and looked past her shoulder, at the one way glass, as though he could see something she couldn't. "That's why they created the disease - their goal was to kill everyone, and the only reason we're alive is because the city was protected by the antidote. It was sprayed around Arabel as a sort of barrier until they could purify the rest of the air. That's why we live above ground and can go out searching for survivors."

"But there couldn't be any survivors," Kyra said, though as soon as the words had left her lips she realised how untrue they could be. She had already found out that her society killed millions of people; it was believable that at least a few of them could have survived. "There aren't people outside our fences. Everyone knows that."

"It isn't true. If the people were close enough to the city, they could have survived off the antidote."

"Do you have proof?" Kyra tried to keep her face impassive, emotionless, but it was hard. What James said next could prove that her father was alive, and unravel the world she'd come to know.