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Troubador Publishing Ltd - Natalie Hibberd

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90 pages

English

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In a divisive world of mistrust and murder, there's only one thing that matters growing up: you're either in The Inside or The Outside. In a desperate attempt to regain control of a flailing society, the Inside government have deployed an unlikely spy, sixteen year old Layna, to work her way into the heart of Outside resistance group - the Freedom Fighters. Having ingratiated herself with the top-ranking soldiers, Layna is discovering that the hardest part of her job is only just beginning.Back on The Inside, the teenage residents are learning to juggle jealousy, heartache and potentially explosive secrets. Little do they know, the pangs of adolescence are about to be joined by far more adult concerns. Storm clouds are gathering on the horizons of this fractured world, and when lightning strikes, nothing will ever be the same.In the long-awaited sequel to the award-winningInside Outthe stakes have been raised and all those involved are about to learn that danger is closer to home than any of them can imagine.

Informations

Publié par	Troubador Publishing Ltd
Date de parution	28 octobre 2022
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781803133621
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	2 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0200€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Copyright © 2022 Natalie Hibberd

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

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ISBN 978 1803133 621

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Matador is an imprint of Troubador Publishing Ltd

For Seth.
You are too small to read this book right now –
but maybe you will find it one day.
Love, Auntie Dazz x
Contents
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-One
Twenty-Two
Twenty-Three
Twenty-Four
Twenty-Five
Twenty-Six
Twenty-Seven
Twenty-Eight
Twenty-Nine
Thirty
Thirty-One
Thirty-Two
Thirty-Three
Thirty-Four
Thirty-Five
Thirty-Six
Thirty-Seven
Thirty-Eight
Thirty-Nine

One
She was breaking all the rules.
From her very earliest infancy, Arabella Knoxwood’s ears had been forcibly tuned to the sinister undercurrents of the world she lived in. Like generations before her, she had been raised on a diet of cautionary tales told in the direst of whispers whenever opportunity arose. Everyone, from her parents to perfect strangers, had impressed the same truisms on her day after day. ‘Never stay out after dark’. ‘Only fools walk alone’. ‘Death waits on lonely roads ’. When you lived on The Outside, and in particular, if you were a woman, it was dangerous to be nocturnal.
Of course, years had now passed since the days of those childhood warnings, and it had been a long, long time since Arabella had been a vulnerable little girl in need of hearing them. Her dedication to the Freedom Fighters’ (FF) cause had brought many rewards with it, not least a formidable physique and the requisite knowledge to expertly wield the dagger currently lodged in the lining of her jacket. Nonetheless, it was with a sense of relief that she caught sight of her destination, and as she ducked through the doorway of the greasy, anonymous dive bar and began immediately to rake the scant clientele for the man she had been bidden to meet, she was hard put to supress a sigh of relief.
‘Hello, Knight,’ she said quietly, spotting her quarry and seating herself opposite him. ‘It’s been a long time.’
For just a moment, the beginnings of a smile flickered across Luke’s face. Though it was gone in less than a second, a certain warmth pervaded his voice as he greeted her. ‘It has indeed. Nonetheless, I’d recognise that face anywhere.’ Suddenly, all flirtation was dropped from his voice, and his expression lost its conviviality as completely as an extinguished candle. ‘You took your time getting here. I was beginning to think you’d lost your nerve.’
Arabella’s lips pursed, and her own smile withered at once. ‘I had a long way to come. So, this had better be worth it.’
Luke laughed humourlessly, and his eyes were instantly hard, as though her words had frozen them. Chilling as the effect was, it did not drain his eyes of emotion. In fact, it made them more intense than ever. ‘That depends,’ he told her, every word as cold as his expression. ‘Do you want to spend the rest of your life beholden to a man whose only claim to power is an accident of birth? Or would you prefer to pull our organisation back from the brink of disaster, so we can finally take our place at the top of the food chain? You’re an intelligent woman, Arabella. It seems a pretty clear choice to me.’
Knoxwood’s eyes widened, the suspicion with which she had regarded him thus far giving way to stunned incredulity. ‘What?’ she spluttered, suddenly fearful that she had been lured into a trap. ‘That’s heresy! If someone hears you, you’ll get both our heads blown off!’
To her astonishment, her companion threw back his head and roared with laughter.
When Arabella remained nonplussed, he reined in his amusement and waved a hand in a gesture encompassing their dilapidated surroundings. ‘Don’t worry your head about that. What happens within these walls stays firmly in its place; they trade on it.’ Dropping his voice, he leaned in closer as his face grew serious again. ‘Besides,’ he continued, ‘if anyone decided to let their mouth run away with them, they’d learn to regret it soon enough.’
His fingers brushed hers across the table, in a way that could almost be taken as casual, yet it sent a frisson of surprise and pleasure coursing through Arabella’s system. Nonetheless, she pulled her hand away from him, folded her arms defensively and, with more effort than she would ever admit, kept a bourgeoning smile from her face. ‘Luke,’ she told him at last, ‘get to the point, if you’ve got one. I’m a busy woman. I mean it; it’s now or never.’
Again, Luke laughed, the sound completely at odds with Arabella’s show of hostility. ‘Indeed, you are – although perhaps not as busy as you ought to be. Not as busy as you deserve. Still deputy commissioner at Training Camp, aren’t you?’
‘So what if I am?’ Arabella demanded hotly, wincing involuntarily as his words struck a raw nerve. ‘What the hell has it got to do with you?’
‘Nothing at all. I meant no offence. I’ve just always thought that sidelining you was one of Nicholas Cookson’s most damaging mistakes. That’s saying something, believe me. He’s made more than his fair share. Still, in this instance, his stupidity may be turned to our advantage. If I’ve put my faith in the right person.’
For a second, the anger remained present on Arabella’s face. As Luke’s words hung between them, however, her expression slowly mutated into a sardonic half-smile. ‘You really hate Cookson, don’t you?’
‘Yep. Though, God knows, it took him long enough to figure that out. He’s got less intelligence in his whole inflated head than you do in one fingertip. Anyway, as I remember it, you were never his biggest fan either. Or has that changed since our initiation days?’
Arabella snorted. ‘Not likely. That was a long time ago, and as you’ve so helpfully reminded me, I’ve never left that bloody building since. Not one poxy promotion.’ Her face darkened, as if a thundercloud had cast a shadow over her brow.
Witnessing her long-supressed anger bubble unstoppably to the surface, it was Luke’s turn to supress a smile. The grudge that Knoxwood was still harbouring against the Freedom Fighters for her lack of progress in the organisation was one he had suspected for a long time – a key factor in his decision to use her as a central player in his scheme. Bitterness such as hers could, when nurtured properly, be developed into a hatred with the potential to be useful in the not-too-distant future. They’d been talking for less than ten minutes, and he could already sense that she was bending to his will. Now , he mused, his ice-blue gaze boring into her. Time to press the advantage .
Leaning forwards in his chair, he met her gaze with calculated intensity – a look he had used to draw many a malleable counterpart into something with the appearance of his confidence. ‘I need your help, Arabella. I need something that only you can give. I need allies .’
‘Allies?’ His companion’s voice had now taken on a breathy quality, her excitement and flirtation now impossible to conceal entirely. ‘What d’you mean?’
‘How d’you suppose anyone makes their bid to overthrow an opponent? Alone and unaided? No, I cannot do this without help. That’s where you come in.’
At this, a hint of Arabella’s old sourness returned. ‘What do you want me to do exactly? I thought we’d established I have no clout. Thanks to our beloved top brass.’
‘ He might have overlooked your talents, but I’m not that dense. You’re deputy commissioner at Training Camp. I need you to rally the troops. To topple Cookson without incurring the wrath of those stupid enough to respect him, we need to find a challenger to the top position. One whom those lemmings are even more willing to follow.’ He saw the bewilderment on her face and barely stopped himself rolling his eyes in exasperation. ‘We’ve got to get Salina Cookson back into the picture.’
It was as though his final words were a bomb secreted under Knoxwood’s seat, suddenly awakening her to the danger of their conversation. ‘Jesus, Knight!’ she hissed, her face rapidly blanching. ‘You’re mad. Absolutely bloody mad!’
For a second, Luke was worried that he had made a mistake in letting her in on his plot. His entire initiative relied upon cooperation within the Freedom Fighters and if Arabella got spooked now and ran squealing to Nicholas Cookson, eager to protect herself by spilling the secrets that had been divulged to her, the whole thing would implode. Trying his utmost to plan his n