As Christmas days go, it’s a weird one. Instead of being at home with Mum, stuffing my face with food while I open presents in the lounge, I’m in a proper nice hotel room with Mum, stuffing my face with food while I open presents in front of the TV.

‘We’re now going to Vanya Hoche, local journalist, and survivor of the Straybridge Invasion, reporting live from outside the town cordon.’

I groan through a mouthful of chocolate orange. ‘Feels like I’m doomed to have Hoche in my life forever.’

‘She helped you, though, didn’t she?’ Mum says, buttering her croissant.

‘Maybe,’ I say. ‘She distracted the sporelings by tripping over, so we could get into the Cake, and gave us information we really needed. It was probably an accident, though.’ 304

‘You think she tripped over accidentally? Really?’ Mum says. ‘Vanya Hoche can handle her heels like no one else I’ve ever met. If she tripped over, it wasn’t an accident.’

‘Even if she was trying to help us,’ I huff. ‘She didn’t do much. We all did way more. And Karim was the one who got us access to the labs and all the XGen stuff.’

‘You know, Vanya Hoche was the one who introduced me to Nadia in the first place. If it wasn’t for her, you two might not be such great friends.’

‘What?’

‘I was in the hospital having treatment. Nadia was there talking to the hospital about how XGen would work with their systems, and Vanya Hoche was covering a story about something or other. She brought Nadia over to me and told us we both had boys starting in Year Seven at Latham.’

I swallow my chocolate. ‘No way. It’s like she planned it so Karim and I would meet.’

‘Hmm.’ Mum lifts her croissant to her mouth. ‘Perhaps she’s been helping you all along.’

And that just doesn’t sit right with me. Hoche is the last person in the world that I want to feel 305 thankful for – she’s an evil control freak and she made my life at Montmorency miserable. But it can’t all be a coincidence; she must have known what she was doing. Just goes to show that people can always surprise you, I suppose. Everyone has good and bad in them, and she’s obviously mostly bad, but maybe there’s a bit of good there, too.

‘Of course, we cannot go beyond the cordon,’ Hoche is saying. ‘Officials want to ensure the area has been fully cleansed of the contaminants that affected the residents of Straybridge before they allow people back into their homes.’

‘And is there any update on what caused the outbreak?’ the studio newsreader asks.