Michael is thirty-nine and gay. Like his little niece, Kim, who has a learning disability, he is considered a non-citizen under the draconian Normalcy Laws. Kim’s parents quietly arrange to flee to New Zealand, where the Normalcy Laws haven’t been implemented. As Michael has a good job and has been careful to hide his homosexuality, he doesn’t consider going with them. Instead, he remains behind and goes about his business as normal until one morning when he is confronted by two Black Guards. Hooded, Michael is taken to what he assumes is the Department of Law. Once people are taken there, they never see the light of day again. Elimination is the only punishment in the New World Order. There he is interrogated by The Man, a handsome officer of the Black Guards. In a desperately hopeless situation, is there any hope of surviving elimination? No one ever has in the past, but Michael discovers something about The Man that hints at his situation not being as bleak as it appears. Can he dare to hope there is a way out? Or is he so delusional that his fantasies of freedom have clouded his judgment? Under the oppressive Normalcy Laws, nothing is certain.

Forbidden

Michael could think of a couple of reasons, but felt it prudent to play dumb.


The Man strode up to him, examined his face before walking a tight circle around him.


Michael felt The Man brush against his buttocks.


“We’re never going to get anywhere if you don’t co-operate, Michael Quinn.”


Michael’s first instinct was to remain silent. Nobody ever returned from a white van. What was the point in co-operating? He was only glad Rebecca, Craig, and the children were well and truly on their way to the coast, to the cargo ship. To freedom. Wild horses couldn’t drag any information about them from his lips. They could torture him first.


Then he decided it might be smarter if he pretended to co-operate. It might encourage them to conclude he had nothing to hide.


“I’m sorry,” he said. “But I honestly don’t know why I’m here.”


Chapter 9