Second, I need to work out where I am and how long I’ve been asleep. It’s boiling hot, whatever I’m lying on is hard and smooth and I can hear Dale’s voice. I think I’m exactly where I fell, which is also good. I stay as still as I can, and try to keep my breathing normal.

‘If he continues to suffer from his condition, he will wake soon,’ a familiar voice says. Mum. ‘As a new sporeling it is unlikely that his body will have had time to fully benefit from the transformation.’

‘Yes, that will come later,’ Dale says. ‘We will wait a few minutes to be sure, and then wake him and access his mind.’

Have you ever tried pretending to be asleep? It’s so much harder than it sounds. Suddenly your legs want to twitch, and your nose is itchy, and the funniest memory jumps into your mind and it’s all you can do not to laugh.

‘Have you found any of the others?’ Dale asks, and I swear my heart stops, waiting to hear the answer.

‘Not so far,’ a familiar voice answers. ‘But it is just a matter of time, especially when we have added the boy to the hive mind. Karim will be close.’ 290

It’s Karim’s mum. And the good news is that if she’s here, she’s not in her office.

OK, next steps. As soon as they wake me, they’ll know I’m not one of them. When that happens, they’ll be raging, and most likely want to kill me. So I have a tiny window for action. I can feel the lump in my sock that means they haven’t found my secret stash. That’s good. I can only be maybe four metres from the tree, but that’s four metres of super-strong alien parasites. I’m hoping Karim and Kat will have the XGen functioning again soon, but I need a back-up plan, just in case.

Then I hear something I don’t expect. A crackle of radio static, and Karim’s voice echoing across the hub. ‘This is FreshTrim101 sliding into your frequency. If you can hear me, StarshottA51, now is the moment. Go!’

And I don’t know what the hell is going on, but the bugs are totally silent, and the radio is crackling, so I open my eyes to see they’re glitching – every one of them. Mum and Mrs Amrani are staring down at me, their eyes narrowed. Best buds, even as aliens. And standing by the main entrance door, holding a walkie-talkie in the air is someone that I’m really happy to see. 291

‘VenomAde!’ I jump up.

‘Hey!’ she grins. ‘Looks like we’re on track. You’d better do what you need to do. I don’t know how long this will keep them glitching.’