Gerard wheeled a large plastic case from behind the cafe’s counter. He took out a drone, fifty centimetres across, with stilt legs that enabled cameras and tools to be slung under the body. He stood it on the counter next to the register as Georgia started laughing.

‘You’ve fitted racing propellers,’ she began contemptuously. ‘You thought they’d make it faster, but they don’t generate much lift. The motors have been taken out and put back without proper alignment. And I don’t know what you’ve done to the control board, but the wiring looks like a bad-hair day …’

Georgia took a breath before spotting something else.

‘And your carbon-fibre frame is cracked, so if by some miracle this mess gets airborne, you’ll have vibration that makes it impossible to control.’

‘Can you fix it?’ Zac asked as Gerard sulked.

‘If I had a week to rebuild the thing from scratch,’ Georgia said. ‘Luckily, there are survey drones in my dad’s lock-up that haven’t benefited from Gerard’s improvements.’

Gerard was excited enough by the plan to forget his humiliation.

‘John Pack’s impeller design is excellent,’ Gerard said. ‘I can use the lab at my university to get the paint-thinner mixture right.’

‘You handle potions and Georgia handles the magic of flight,’ Kamila told her boyfriend soothingly.

‘What about timescale?’ Zac asked.

‘Every day we wait is a chance for information to leak,’ Gerard said.

‘Full speed ahead,’ Kamila agreed.

‘What’s the earliest you can have a drone ready?’ Zac asked.

‘I need to order a box of motors, but once I have them I can prep a drone in a few hours,’ Georgia said. ‘Maybe a couple of practice flights over the weekend. I’ll need someone to drive me out to an open space. Somewhere where I can practise flying a big drone and not get recognised.’

‘About the same for me,’ Gerard added. ‘When Georgia does her test flight, we can test paint mixtures for rapid dispersal and nozzle clogging.’

‘If we’re confident on the technical side, we need to find our target quickly,’ Zac said, turning to Gerard. ‘How reliable is your insider?’

‘It’s my sister, Pippa,’ Gerard confessed. ‘She’s a politics nut. Joined the party youth wing when she was fourteen. Finished her degree and got a job at Party Headquarters through our uncle. But Sis feels let down by everything that’s happened since they got elected.’

‘We should definitely use red paint,’ Elodie said. ‘It’ll look like blood and scare the heck out of everyone!’

‘Red for true socialism!’ Zac added as he gave Georgia a smile.

FORTY-THREE

It was twenty to midnight when the master and deputy master of Brushwood House finished yelling and sent boys to bed. Six hours later, Julius found himself nudged from sleep by a man as tall as he was, but twice as wide.