Read Online The Fall by Claire Merle - Free Book Online

point of the blade away from her face. The bottom edge dug a fraction into her throat so that she had to advance to avoid getting cut. Guiding her with just the slightest twist of his wrist, he moved them down the brick passage towards the hole in the Project wall.
    She shuffled forwards, shining the torch ahead to guide her step. Every skin cell on the surface of her body prickled. He was using her to shield himself.
    The ten-foot long corridor ended in a wall of concrete brick. A rough oval window had been knocked through.
    ‘Give me the torch,’ he said. She handed it back to him. The knife around her throat loosened and the light vanished. Up ahead, through the hole, lay pitch-darkness. Behind Ana, the tiny luminous circuitry in Dombrant’s eye was her only point of reference.
    ‘Let’s see how well you do.’
    Again, she heard the levity in his voice. He was too confident. She climbed up into the hole, scooted along and lowered herself down the other side. Her feet hit soft earth. She glanced back. The Warden was climbing through the gap after her. She had a thirty-second head start. Let’s see how well you do. Had he been daring her to run? She hesitated and Dombrant jumped down behind her, swiftly wrapping his arm with the knife around her neck again.
    She tiptoed forwards and swept aside layers of vines that hung around the exit. They ducked around a gap in the tall bush and moments later were standing in an overgrown back garden in the City. A faint light glowed two houses down the road. Weeds and shrubs and abandoned children’s toys cast twisted shadows in the moonlight.
    There was a movement to their left.
    ‘Come any closer and I’ll slit her throat,’ Dombrant warned, shuffling Ana to the right.
    ‘We don’t want anyone getting hurt,’ a voice called. It sounded like Tobias.
    ‘I don’t want to hurt her,’ Dombrant answered. ‘I just came for something she took that belongs to her father. You back off and I’ll leave her on the corner of West Hill, just two minutes from here. Everyone walks away.’
    For a moment no one responded. Ana felt the hard pulse in her wrists. Wind gusted across her face and the trees whispered, shaking their leaves.
    Dombrant’s knuckles slackened against her throat. He was getting ready to move.
    ‘What assurances do we have you won’t be back?’ Tobias again.
    ‘I came alone. Just for the disc. That’s all we want.’
    ‘Then leave Ana.’ Cole! Instinctively, she wanted to tilt her head towards his voice but such a big move would result in her getting cut. The pressure in her chest doubled. She was more afraid for Cole’s safety than she was for her own. Her father might have ordered Dombrant not to hurt her too badly, but he’d be delighted if something happened to Cole.
    She dropped her gaze, trying to calm herself. Her eyes settled on Dombrant’s Stinger, now switched off and dangling from a loop on his belt.
    ‘I told you I’ll leave her on the corner of West Hill,’ the Warden said.
    Another silence, longer than before. Dombrant began pushing her forward. There was no point in pretending to resist the blade at her throat. They were halfway across the lawn when there came a shout.
    ‘No!’
    Dombrant’s head whipped back. Ana couldn’t turn, but she somehow knew what was happening. Tobias was shouting at Cole, not the Warden. She squinted as far around as she could. From the corner of her eye, she saw Cole step into full view, blocking their way, a steel pole like a hand trident clenched in his fist.
    ‘You’re not taking Ana.’
    ‘Don’t be stupid,’ Dombrant said, ‘or she’ll get hurt.’
    ‘If you only want the disc, then you can let her go.’
    ‘And then what’s to say you’ll let me go?’
    ‘There are only two of us,’ Cole said. ‘You’ve got a knife. You’ve been well trained or else you wouldn’t have got this far. Right now all the advantages are on your side. But,’ His voice deepened with menace, ‘if you take