Her phone buzzed again. She reached into her pocket and switched it off, making a mental note to wipe Fischer’s number when she got the chance.

“Find it interesting?”

“Space war?” she said.

“Space security.”

“I’m not sure I’ve got the technical know-how.”

“As you’ve seen, it’s going to involve a huge amount of intelligence work on the ground. A new set of priorities.”

“Yes.”

“Would you work with a company like Quadrant? After these events?”

Taylor considered. Would she? Already she could feel the rationalizations arriving, smoothing a path for her conscience.

“I’d have to see. I wouldn’t rule it out.”

“Why don’t you come to my office on Monday and we can talk about it further. I can imagine you contributing significantly.”

Taylor nodded. She didn’t even know where the space department was in Vauxhall Cross. Yet she could imagine herself contributing too. But then, success is easy to imagine. She’d been doing it long enough.

“I’ll certainly have a think,” she said as the armed police nodded, angling their machine guns down and opening the gates back out to the real world.

35

Connor had vanished by the time Kane got back to the jetty.Carina had begun shivering. Her eyelids fluttered and quiet groans escaped her pale lips. Anne rested a hand on her daughter’s forehead and one on her trembling shoulder. Kane looked around for Connor and eventually saw the boy up on the fort beside the harbor, silhouetted against the sky.

Kane walked over, climbed up the old stones. The sun was high now and his clothes were already drying on his body. He realized how thirsty he was, and as the adrenaline seeped away he could feel his injuries, his left knee starting to seize up, hands throbbing where the skin had torn.

Connor sat on a rusted gun mount. He stared out to sea, and Kane thought he must be searching for signs of Thomas, but as he got closer he saw that the boy was looking at a ship. It was a few kilometers out from shore, long and narrow, with a small white radome and antennae that from a distance looked like masts. A spy ship.

“Ever seen one like that before around here?” Kane asked.

“No.”

“Looks like it’s watching us,” Kane said. The boy nodded.

“It has to do with him, doesn’t it,” he said.

“Maybe.”

The boy stared ahead.

“Are you going to ask for the gun?”

“No. Did you reload it?”

“No. It’s empty. Is Carina okay?”

“She’ll be okay. Want to come back?”

Connor shook his head.