‘Thank you,’ Karim’s mum says. ‘My name is 26 Nadia Amrani, and I am the lead communications officer for XGen’s Straybridge SMARTtown project. Given the seriousness of the current situation, I wanted to provide some reassurance regarding the SMARTtown project status. Straybridge has poured an enormous amount of hard work into the project over the past six months and, though the cause of the explosion remains unclear at this point, I am certain that it was not due to any fault or failing in the XGen technology. Safety has always been, and always will be, of paramount importance to XGen, and we will be working with the relevant departments to fully investigate what caused the incident. We do not envisage there being any lasting detrimental effect to the project, which will continue after this slight delay. We will, of course, be here to listen to concerns and answer as many questions as we can over the coming days, but for now we must focus on the primary objective of securing the test subject and the laboratories.’ She looks around the room. ‘Are there any questions?’ She nods at an unseen person. ‘Please go ahead.’

A voice calls out clearly across the room, and it makes me go cold, cos it sounds so familiar. It can’t be, though. It can’t be her.

27 ‘Will the scientific advisor be available to answer questions about the escaped test subject?’ she says. ‘The information you have provided is too vague for the people of Straybridge to be able to prepare and protect themselves.’

‘The scientific advisor is not available,’ Karim’s mum says. ‘I’m sure you’ll appreciate that his time is better spent working to resolve the situation than answering questions about it. But, let me assure you again, there is no reason to panic. The test subject will be inclined to hide during the day, and as such will pose no threat to the public. As long as we all respect the rules of the curfew, I have been assured that we will be safe.’

‘I’m sure the public would all feel far happier to hear this from the expert,’ the unseen question-asker says. And I’m straining my ears to listen, because I need to know if it’s her. ‘Will he be answering questions in due course?’

To be fair to Karim’s mum, she doesn’t drop her calm.

‘As I said, Vanya, the scientific advisor is busy working on retrieval of the test subject and the investigation at the labs. I will be sure to relay your concerns to him, and we will issue a statement if 28 we have any further information that we can share.’