THE FEARLESS

HOPE: CHAPTER 9

                                                                                    CASS

Marissa and I return to the Meeting Hall, where Shelley and Andrej demand to know what happened. When Marissa explains, they stare at us with shocked expressions.

'Patroller Fleet left his post?' Andrej says. 'Is he crazy? Anyone could have got onto the island – there could be Fearless hiding out in the Shudders, waiting for a chance to—'

'Ugh, don't.' Shelley makes a face, wrapping her arms around her middle. She only joined the Junior Patrol because her parents pressured her into it. 'There can't be anyone else here. The Patrol will search the Shudders, right?'

'D'you think that boy was Fearless?' Andrej asks me.

I shake my head. 'No. His eyes were brown. His eye, I mean. I saw it.'

'What're you talking about that freak for?' Rob says loudly behind us as he comes in with Sol. We all gasp. Sol's clothes are scuffed and dirty and his knuckles are grazed; a huge bruise is blossoming on his jaw.

'What happened?' Shelley says.

'He attacked me,' Sol says. He touches his jaw gingerly and winces.

Then we hear Captain Denning's voice in the corridor outside. We quickly form a row in front of the table again as he and the other Patrollers come back in. Rob hands Patroller Yuen her gun, and I listen in disbelief as Sol explains how the boy had a knife up his sleeve and tried to stab him with it, and how it was only Sol's years of training that meant he was able to disarm him without getting cut.

'Where is this knife?' Captain Denning asks, frowning.

'I got rid of it, sir,' Sol says.

Hang on, I think. You and Rob had a gun. Why didn't you just point that at him?

It doesn't add up. Even if the boy has some sort of death wish, a knife is no match for a gun, especially not a Browning, and especially not at close range.

No one else seems to notice the hole in Sol's story, though. They're gazing at him in awe.

'Are you able to continue with your assessment?' Captain Denning asks.

Sol nods.

'Very well. Patroller Cary, if the boy is violent, I want someone to stand guard at the cells. We can't spare any of the Patrol proper, but one of the older members of the Junior Patrol would do. Go to the school and tell Adam Hopkins he's excused from his lessons. Make sure he has a gun.'

I see anxiety flicker across Shelley's face as Patroller Cary heads for the door. Adam is her younger brother, and has eighteen months left in the Junior Patrol.

Patroller Cary salutes and leaves.

'We will now conclude your assessment,' Captain Denning says. 'Marissa Yuen, you are stranded on the mainland with only a bottle of water, some rope and a striking flint. Please take me through the steps you would take to ensure your survival.'

As Marissa tells him, I zone out, thinking about the boy again, and the way he mouthed help me as he was led away. I don't know why, but when he said he was here to try and get medicine for his friend's kid, I believed him. Bringing Jori up practically single-handed has given me a sixth sense for lies – which is why Sol's story about the knife has me wondering – and anyway, why go to all that effort, swimming from the mainland (a superhuman feat in itself, especially at this time of year, when the sea is close to freezing), and try to break into a community you knew was going to be hostile, if you weren't truly desperate?