Read Online Anew: Book Two: Hunted by Josie Litton - Free Book Online

problem is that makes everyone else losers,
something people are bound to resent, if not worse.
    “When you put it like that,” I say, “I have to wonder why
there isn’t more unrest.”
    “People who commit what the government classifies as crimes
lose their benefits,” Edward says quietly. I hadn’t noticed that he was
listening but now I realize that the others have tuned into Ian and my
conversation. Our table is an island of seriousness in a sea of frivolity.
“With no other way to survive,” my brother adds, “they have to become
scavengers.”
    “That’s a fate that anyone would fear,” Marianne says
softly. “I imagine that most people just accept their lot rather than risk
having that happen to them.”
    “And to their children,” Adele adds. “People who lose their
benefits also lose their children. Minors in those circumstances become wards
of the state unless their parents go underground with them.”
    I think of the ragged, hungry children I saw earlier and a
surge of anger fills me. Dimly I realize that this is the emotion that has been
building in me ever since I arrived in the city. I’ve fought against it because
more even than my yearning for Ian, it frightens me. By any measure, I can be
considered naïve, having been awake such a short time, but I am coming to
appreciate the advantage of seeing with new eyes, not jaded by experience. Eyes
that increasingly view the world with painful clarity, cutting through the
façade of beauty and luxury to a far uglier reality.
    My companions may see a more complex situation than I am
capable of appreciating but that doesn’t change the essential truth that I
refuse to deny any longer.
     “This is wrong,” I say, gesturing to our exquisite
surroundings and beyond--the park, the city, the world of excess and indulgence
that presses in on me with claustrophobic intensity. “Profoundly wrong.
Something has to change. The status quo isn’t just deeply unjust, it’s also
dangerous. However fearful people may be, when their survival hangs in the
balance and even their children are threatened, I have to believe that they
will act. The only uncertainty is when and how. That and how many will die in
the process.”
    A glance goes around the table. I sense a silent
understanding that eludes me. “Another time,” Edward says softly. “Another
place.” He isn’t reprimanding me, only reminding me that the setting calls for
discretion. I flush, suddenly feeling very young but knowing that he is right.
    The conversation moves on to less sensitive topics. I try to
be attentive to it but my dark thoughts about the world in which I find myself
entwine with my vivid awareness of Ian. I can’t help wondering where he stands.
He possesses enormous power but if it really came down to it, which side would
he choose--the privileged elite to which he undeniably belongs or the masses of
ordinary people for whom he seems to have at least some empathy?
    I can’t answer that question. The man who has taken me to
the heights of ecstasy and the depths of despair is still very much a stranger
to me. That thought leaves me subdued through the rest of supper. When the
dancing resumes, my body feels unaccountably heavy. I go through the motions as
I did before but they require far more effort. My face hurts with the strain of
smiling. I’m feeling trapped when an all-too-familiar presence suddenly
appears.
    Charles Davos gives my current dance partner a chill smile
and jerks his head slightly in a gesture of dismissal. The young man--who
presumably comes from an affluent, powerful family--doesn’t hesitate. He steps
aside at once, in effect handing me over to Davos.
    Before I can get over my own shock at his sudden appearance,
I am in the arms of the silver-haired, seventyish patrician who is rumored to
control the city council and a great deal more. Despite his age, he is tall and
fit, the result no doubt of every longevity enhancement that money can buy.
    My instinct