‘Dale,’ I say. ‘Gotta admit, I wasn’t expecting it to be you.’ I smack myself in the forehead. ‘The logo on the hoody in Karim’s mum’s office – I knew I’d seen it before. It’s from the University of Nottingham. It was on your ID that we found at Crater Lake.’

‘Dale was my human name,’ Dale says. ‘I am the leader of the hive mind, and I’ve been very much looking forward to talking to you.’

‘I’d love to say the same, but to be honest, I would much prefer not to be having this conversation.’

‘You have proved yourself to be an interesting adversary – clever, resourceful and brave. We thought we had you a couple of times, but you’ve 282 eluded us. And now here you are, which makes me wonder why.’ He tilts his head and stares me down.

‘You want me to tell you my plan?’ I say. ‘Cos I don’t think that’s how this works. I don’t know how many movies you’ve watched, but this is the bit when you tell me your plan, and then I escape and use it against you.’

He smiles. ‘You already know my plan, you’re here to try to stop it. The question is how.’ He nods at the bugs behind me, and they rip the bag from my back and start searching it. They pull out a spray can, a bottle of water and a walkie-talkie.

‘I assume there are tardigrades in the water,’ Dale says. ‘Such fascinating and enraging creatures but harmless unless they are taken into the body. What were you going to do? Contaminate my drink?’ He laughs. ‘And your radio waves can only disrupt our signal, they cannot damage us. My workers have been busy for weeks, dismantling XGen beacons all over town under cover of darkness. This is hardly a challenge.’ He takes the walkie from the guard and drops it onto the floor, then smashes it with the heel of his shoe. I do my best to look gutted. I 283 mean, I am a bit cos I wanted to use it to contact Ade, but it’s not like I thought I’d be able to take down the whole swarm with it.

‘The polymers are an annoyance, too, but you’re too late to stop the galls from blooming.’ Dale steps back, and one of the guards puts the water, spray can and walkie pieces in a clear plastic box like the ones in the lab. He clicks it shut and puts it on the desk.

‘So, what to do with our greatest enemy?’ Dale paces back and forth in front of me. ‘Death by sting, perhaps.’

‘What happened to you, Dale? I thought everyone was tardigraded back after Crater Lake.’

‘Oh, I was,’ he says. ‘Stripped of my superior mind, physical strength and speed, and every other glorious thing that went along with being part of the swarm.’