‘What do you think about my idea?’ Laura chewed nervously on her thumb. She stood in the Council Chambers with Arianna, Stephen and Serena.
Serena nodded. ‘It could work. But who do you propose to head up this venture?’
‘Arianna.’
Her friend, with her hands behind her back, beamed at the leaders of District Three. Laura had already spoken to her about it last night. Isobel’s presence had sparked an idea in her head. Laura and Arianna had been up all night discussing it, teasing out the logistics of it, in the hopes it would pass one Indigene’s strict approval. Stephen looked sceptical.
‘And Clement,’ Laura added quietly, expecting Stephen to hit the roof.
Both Serena and Stephen stared at her. She’d expected this reaction, since Clement was still locked up.
‘Think of it as his rehabilitation.’
Stephen flashed an unconvinced smile. ‘By acting as a go-between for the Indigenes and humans?’
‘Arianna would be the main point of contact. Clement would be helping her to manage the education workshops. The Indigenes are feared because humans don’t know enough about them. Equally, the humans are feared for the same reason. I want to bridge that gap by improving communication between the species, like is happening on Earth.’
Serena shrugged at Stephen. ‘It’s not a terrible idea.’
‘No, it’s not.’ Stephen sighed. ‘Clement is not off the hook, but I would prefer to see him doing good rather than languishing in one of our cells.’
Laura released a quiet breath of her own. She’d hoped this would be Stephen’s reaction. What Clement had done was serious, but it had been to protect the Indigenes and the Conditioned. And Laura. Harvey’s death had been the only way to stop this madness.
‘May I tell him the good news?’ she asked.
‘Maybe it would be better to wait until we have a plan before we do,’ suggested Serena.
Arianna cleared her throat. ‘Actually, Laura and I discussed one last night.’
Stephen lifted a hairless brow. ‘A fully formed one?’
Laura nodded. ‘I have ties to both worlds. I’ve been thinking about it for a long time. I just never saw a way to do this until Isobel arrived here and showed me we’ve already formed meaningful connections between the species. Her friendship with Ben is proof of that. Or yours with Bill. Mine with Clement and Arianna. We have a chance to right what has been wrong for too long.’
Stephen half smiled. ‘I guess epidemics have a way of focusing the mind.’
‘They do.’
The virus had certainly contributed to Laura’s concerns about the divisions between the Indigenes and humans. But with the Elite acting as a reminder of a world that no longer existed, she hadn’t seen a way to cut ties with the past. Now, with their deaths, and the recent push for control, it had shown her who in the ITF was loyal to the old regime and who was capable of change. It would be easier to start anew with those interested in preserving the different cultures and their needs.
She wasn’t sure what role the Conditioned would play in her improved-communication idea, but the genetically reversed Isobel was technically a third species on Earth, and had shown in a short space of time that anything was possible.
‘Will Clement agree to your plan?’ asked Serena.
Laura hoped he would. It was a chance to turn this mess into something positive. ‘I’ll ask him now.’
She and Arianna left Council Chambers and headed for a disused accommodation area in the south of the district. Clement was being held in the same cell once used to hold Benedict, the fake persona Charles Deighton’s imprint had invented to control Anton. Arianna shivered when they entered the area. She had visited Anton once, and been on the receiving end of Benedict’s insidious games.
Posted outside the room were two guards.
Laura stepped up to the pair. ‘Let me speak to the prisoner. I have permission from Stephen and Serena.’
The guards glanced at each other, but when Arianna confirmed it, they stepped aside.
Laura approached the door. She turned to Arianna. ‘Let me talk to him first. I want to make sure he’s okay.’
Arianna hugged her body and nodded. ‘I’ll be out here, waiting.’
Laura touched the handle just as one of the guards said, ‘I’m happy he killed that human. I don’t care if you know that.’
She nodded at him. ‘It certainly makes things simpler.’
When it came to Harvey Buchanan, she neither condoned nor condemned Clement’s actions.
Laura opened the door and peered inside. She saw a despondent Clement leaning against the wall. He wore the same black hunting outfit from a few days ago, still marked with dust, dirt and probably Harvey’s blood. A folded change of clothes was on the floor next to him, but he hadn’t touched them.
He looked up lazily at first, then his eyes widened.
‘Laura.’ Clement straightened up and brushed stone dirt off his back. He looked around, flustered. ‘I’d invite you to sit, but there aren’t any chairs in here.’
She smiled and leaned against the wall. ‘This is fine.’
He joined her hesitantly.
Laura worried for her friend. ‘Are you okay?’
He nodded. ‘I’m where I deserve to be.’
There was something she wanted to know, something that had bothered her about that night. ‘Clement, did you set out to kill Harvey that night?’
A deep frown marked his forehead. Clement looked away.
A moment later, he looked back. ‘No.’
Her heart lifted with relief to hear that. Clement was not a killer. What had happened had been circumstantial.
He added, ‘But would I go back and do it again? Yes. He was trying to ethnically cleanse our race.’
‘Harvey lived through a corrupt time.’
Clement stared at her. ‘Do you agree with his actions?’
‘No, but he’d seen more than I have—than you have. His perspective of right and wrong was skewed.’
‘So he should have been permitted to carry out his plans?’
‘No, I’m not saying that, but he was doing what he thought was right. He was trying to reset the world, to bring status quo. His plans surprised me, that’s all. He turned out to be a different person to the one I knew eight years ago.’
He’d threatened to kill her once.
But he’d also saved her life by giving Bill a treatment to slow down her alterations.
Clement’s sigh sounded like he didn’t agree. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘I have news. Stephen and Serena have agreed to release you.’
He shifted around to face her. ‘What, why?’
Laura sensed worry from him, not relief. ‘Don’t you want to be released?’
‘Of course I do, but what I did was wrong, and I deserve no special treatment.’
‘And you won’t get it. Arianna and I came up with an idea for educational workshops, to bridge the gap of knowledge between Indigenes and humans. The problem isn’t that we are all different; it’s that we are all the same deep down, but think we’re different. All anyone sees are the skills, the appearances. But we’re all after the same thing: the right to live life to the fullest.’
‘And you think your workshops can help with that?’
‘We have visitors from Earth who have explained that the same workshops there have helped to break down the barriers between the races in a short space of time. If it can work on Earth, it can work here. But it won’t be easy.’
The Indigene with eyes as blue as Serena’s—a beautiful side effect from the third-gen alteration—frowned at her. ‘I don’t understand why you need me. Arianna sounds capable of doing that herself.’
Clement brought other benefits to the workshops.
‘You have an understanding of the humans that Arianna does not—yet. You worked undercover. You used to be human.’ She touched his hand. ‘I’d like you to work with Gunnar, Bill’s chief-in-command, to bring both species to the workshops. The more we show a united front, the better this will work.’
Isobel’s presence had taught her that.
Clement dropped his gaze to their touching hands. ‘And you’re sure you want me for this?’
She squeezed his fingers. ‘I can’t think of anyone better for the role.’