‘I expect that the concentration of spores is weaker,’ Ade sniffs. ‘In Crater Lake we were surrounded by spores directly from the meteor. The tree galls aren’t the original spores – they’re a mutated version. They could be less potent, have a smaller range of spread, or be slower acting.’

191 ‘So they only change people who are close to them over a certain amount of time,’ I say.

‘And who don’t have an extensive hair-styling routine.’ Karim pats his hair.

‘If the cones are the galls,’ I say, a stab of dread poking at my gut. ‘Would it make a difference if they were open or closed?’

‘I’d say so,’ Mak says. ‘What are the cones like?’

‘At the moment they’re like the size of satsumas, round and made up of loads of woody petals that are curled into each other, like the bud of a flower,’ I say.

‘That’s a very good description, Lance,’ Kat smiles at me. ‘That’s exactly what they’re like.’ It makes me embarrassingly pleased with myself.

‘So they’re definitely closed?’ Mak asks.

‘I would say so.’ I nod. ‘Mum said, before she changed, that they’d open in a few days and that they’d release a nice smell. Supposedly.’

‘So when the cones open,’ Kat says, ‘it’s not going to be just a smell coming out.’

‘We have to stop it from happening,’ I say. ‘The spore situation we’ve had so far is just the start – easing us in. When they open there’ll be no stopping them.’ 192

‘What are you going to do, Lance?’ Ade says. ‘Raid the shopping centre for cans of hairspray and run from house to house coating each individual tree with PVPs? It’s not possible.’

‘Oh man,’ I say. Cos she’s right. Even if we knew where all the trees were, how would we get access to them all? And without the swarm stopping us.

‘You’d better make a plan B,’ Ade says, sipping on her coke.

And I don’t really like her cruddy attitude right now, but she is annoyingly bang on. We need a change of direction. ‘Any thoughts on the glitching situation with Mum?’ I say.

‘Tell us exactly what happened,’ Mak says.

‘So she glitched the night after the explosion, and that’s definitely when she changed. Up till then she was Mum. I mean I think she’d been changing physically – she was well and full of energy, like I haven’t seen her for years. But she was still my mum. Then she glitched in the middle of the night, and totally changed.’

‘What time did you say that was?’ Ade asks.

‘It was at four a.m., the first night of curfew.’ And even as I’m saying it out loud, the scraps of information I’ve been keeping in my head start to 193 connect. ‘The same time that Hoche said the XGen signal went down.’