"Melody, go inside and check your father is asleep."
"I'm not leaving you here with her."
"I said go inside and check on him. I won't ask you again."
Melody stood firm, glaring at her mother. Hannah was reminded of the little girl who used to follow Shane everywhere, no matter how much he teased her. She was still that little girl, but now she was a stubborn little girl with a shotgun.
"Melody... please, your father can't cope with this."
Reluctantly, the girl backed away and went into the house and Amelia turned back to Hannah.
"Losing Shane has been hard on us all, but my husband...," her voice cracked and she exhaled slowly, "he's now a shell of the man he once was."
Hannah lowered her eyes to the floor, squeezing them shut, trying to stop the images flashing in her mind: Shane and his father playing football in their back yard, fishing down by the creek, celebrating Shane's sixteenth birthday...
The door opened and Melody came out and stood by her mother. "He's asleep."
Amelia nodded. "How long do we have?" She asked Hannah.
"I don't know. The guards were arriving as we left Anne's. I had to warn you." Hannah replied.
"You'd better come in then," Amelia said and led the way. Melody waited by the door and glared at Hannah as she walked passed. The aroma of dampness mixed with stale cooking fat assaulted Hannah's nose, yet the kitchen, looked clean, homely almost, almost like their old one.
"Take a seat." Amelia pointed to a small table in the corner of the kitchen and then sat on the opposite side. No freshly baked cookies or warmed milk welcomed Hannah this time.
"So Briggs has my name, does he?"
"Yes."
"That's unfortunate and yet not unexpected." Amelia paused, looking towards Melody. "So, how's Anne? I haven't seen in her in a very long time."
Hannah tried to reply, but couldn't find the words.
"Unfortunately she took her own life tonight, so it would be fair to say she isn't doing so well," Tucker said and laughed nervously. One look from Hannah and he stopped dead.
"That's too bad. She was one of the good ones." Amelia clasped her fingers together and closed her eyes. Melody reached over and put a hand on her shoulder. The simple gesture made Hannah think again about her mother and how much she wished she could just reach out and touch her.
"You didn't just come here to warn me, Hannah, what is it you want to know?" Amelia asked.
Hannah shook her head and then took a deep breath, her nerves getting the better of her under Amelia's penetrating stare.
"I want to know what this list is and why I was given it. Before Anne died, she told us that the other two people, Joel Muro and an A. Crowe, were already dead. Can you tell me anything about them?"
Amelia laughed. It was a hard, soulless laugh and not done out of amusement. Hannah, Tucker and Melody, looked on uncomfortably, confused by her reaction.
"Anne was half right. Joel died in a car accident nearly five years ago."
"So who was he?"
"Joel was a fix-it kind of guy and that is probably why his name is on the list. He knew everyone and could get anything; there wasn't a trade going on around here that he didn't know about. He wasn't Flawed, but he was low enough not to be accepted over there and kind of lived on the margins. Fortunately for the resistance, his sympathies were over here with us and great use was made of the information he managed to get from his contacts within the army. His tip- offs saved many lives; just not his own, sadly. Joel was killed, but it was made to look like an accident."
"Why would they kill him and not try to bring him to justice if he was found to be selling secrets?" Tucker asked.
"Briggs likes to be seen as being all powerful, with an iron grip on our society. He wasn't going to publically admit to having dissenters and spies in his ranks as that would weaken his image. Better just to remove the problem quickly and without fuss."
The temperature of the room seemed to drop. Hannah tried to stop herself from thinking about that fact that it was Briggs's blood that ran in both her and Tucker's veins. The thought made her shudder and so she wrapped her arms around herself.
"Earlier you said Anne was half-right. Is this Crowe person still alive?" Tucker probed.
"Not in the traditional sense."
"What do you mean by that?" Tucker asked, clearly struggling to hide the frustration in his voice.
"Well, let's just say that Mr. Crowe, never really existed in the first place. But that is as much as I am prepared to tell you about him. If a name is the only thing Briggs has on him, then I for one won't be providing any more information on him. I owe him that at least."
Hannah wanted to press further on the identity of Crowe, but from the look on Amelia's face, she knew it would prove fruitless and that she would have to find out about him another way. That just left the other burning question unanswered and she didn't quite know how to approach it. She looked over at Amelia, who as now staring down at her wedding ring and twiddling it between her fingers.
"Mrs Dexter, how do you fit into all of this?" Hannah asked quietly, her voice shaking a little.
Amelia smiled and looked out of the small window into the black for a moment and then back to Hannah.
"Have you heard of an organisation called Parity?"
Hannah nodded, remembering the conversation she had had with her father and his request for her to do anything she could to help them. She looked at Amelia, surprised she could have any knowledge or dealings with such a group.
"For years, Parity has been the only organised opposition to Briggs and his government. My Grandfather was once the leader of Parity, as it is called today. Back then it didn't have a name, just a rag-tag bunch of people trying to stand up for what was right. Even though it has never got close to overthrowing Briggs's regime or the one that went before that, it has caused major problems for them. You could say Parity is the fly in Briggs's ointment."
"My father told me recently that he worked for Parity and that my new position could help their cause. Who is the new leader, where can I find them?" Hannah asked, trying to curtail the excitement she felt. If she could help Parity, maybe they could help her and her parents.
Amelia smiled at Melody, who smirked at Hannah.
"When my grandfather passed away, the leadership went to my uncle. He ran things differently to his father. My uncle preferred direct action. Until this time, the actions of Parity had been reasonably tame. They would interrupt supply routes, steal supplies, vandalise equipment and buildings. My uncle changed that. He encouraged the use of force and the numerous uprisings twenty odd years ago were a result. He said we were at war and should therefore fight for ourselves. They fought so hard that the regime came close to breaking a number of times, but then Briggs came on the scene. From early on, my uncle knew of him. Briggs seemed utterly fearless and was ruthless in his dealings with opposition. He put more men on the ground, reintroduced public executions and made greater use of intelligence gathering to starve Parity of resources and people. In just a few short years, Briggs rose to highest ranks of the army, whilst Parity struggled to maintain momentum.
The membership of Parity came under strain. Opportunists joined the ranks as well as criminals of all types, who saw the battle as a way of furthering their own needs and not the Flawed population as a whole. My uncle struggled to maintain control, while trying to remain an anonymous as possible. The secretive, devolved structure of Parity just wasn't working and it was being overrun. Briggs learned that my uncle and cousin were involved in some way and he tried to make out that they had been responsible for the rape and murder of his sister years earlier."
Hannah gasped as the realisation of who Amelia was talking about hit her.
"You're talking about Adam Martin aren't you, Cecily's brother."
"Yes, Hannah. I swear they didn't touch his sister, but they found out who did, but they couldn't report it, for fear of giving away too much. So instead they dealt with it themselves, most severely. Somehow, Briggs found out that they were part of the resistance and knew who had attacked his sister and he killed them in revenge. I only learnt that Cecily had survived a few years later. We thought she had been killed too."
"So how do you fit into all of this?" Hannah asked cautiously.
"After my uncle was killed, my father ran Parity and when he died, Bill took over."
"What?" Hannah cried out. "Mr Dexter?"
"Bill has run Parity for nearly twenty years.
Hannah looked at Amelia, waiting for a smile to crack her face and for her to admit this was all a joke. Amelia's face didn't change.
"Did... did Shane know about this?"
"No, Hannah, he didn't. We didn't want Shane involved in anything till he was much older and only then if he wanted to."
Hannah looked at the woman in front of her and realised that she didn't know her at all. They had always seemed so 'normal', just your average, hardworking Flawed family, trying to get by. They had invited her into their family, made her feel safe and yet, now she felt anything but.
"Did you know what Eastman was doing?"
"Yes and no. Eastman contacted us, after he thought Briggs had killed Cecily. He wanted us to know that he was working on something and that we had to be patient. He also asked us to provide Anne Holland with some names of good families that might want to adopt Flawed children. We thought he was trying to help relocate those poor children into better, loving homes. We didn't think for a moment that these children would actually be pawns in some bigger game."
"Did you recommend my parents," Hannah asked.
"Yes. Your parents were devastated when they lost their baby. I contacted Anne and asked if she had any babies that needed relocating and within hours you were in Lynne's arms. I have asked myself a thousand times or more, if that decision, cost Shane his life."
"I am so sorry, Mrs Dexter. If I could go back and undo what has been done I would, but I can't."
Having remained remarkably quiet whilst her mother spoke, Melody turned on Hannah.
"You took him from us. He followed you that night because he was a good person, and for what? You're Briggs's pet. For all we know, he sent you here tonight and he is waiting outside for us right now. Dad's right; you don't deserve to breathe anymore." Melody picked up the gun that had been leaning against the wall and rested it on the table, the barrel pointing at Hannah. Both Tucker and Hannah moved back in their chairs.
"Melody, calm down, Briggs would have been inside by now if that was the case." Amelia placed her hand on Melody's back and patted her gently, making quiet, shushing sounds, as if she was settling a baby. "
Hannah was now anxious to leave. The room felt hot airless and tense.
"We'd better go. Sorry for disturbing you this evening." Hannah stood up to leave and Tucker followed suit.
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that Hannah. We failed the last time we tried to get you. How fortuitous you came to us instead." Amelia smiled sweetly at Hannah, but the look in her eyes lacked the same sentiment.
"I don't understand. What do you mean the last time?" Hannah said, uncomprehending.
"At the banquet at City Hall, Bill sent a team in to get you, but unfortunately it got a little messy and you proved to be most evasive."
"That was you?" Hannah asked, her chest tightening. She looked over to Tucker whose expression mirrored her own. His eyes flitted to the doorway and Hannah knew what he was trying to suggest.
"I wouldn't even think about that, if I were you Hannah."
Amelia picked up the gun and pointed it at Hannah.
"Sit down," she ordered and then turned to Melody. "It's about time you went and woke up your father."