‘I expect we poo them out,’ she says. ‘Although it would be amazing if we could absorb them.’

‘And take on their skills!’ Karim says.

‘We’d be like superheroes.’ I’m totally thinking about seeing if this is possible. At a more convenient time, obviously.

‘We can try this, right?’ Karim asks me, and I can see he’s as excited about it as I am.

‘For sure,’ I say, holding my hand up for a high five. Karim slaps it and we grin at each other, and then I have the best idea. 219

‘That’s it!’ I say. ‘That’s the perfect test.’

‘Experimenting on ourselves to see if we can turn into Tardi-Man?’ Mak says.

I rub my fingers on the palm of my hand. ‘My mum’s hands are rough and sticky now. I think they’re covered in something that helps her grip to the walls and hang upside down.’

‘I know lots of insects have tiny bristles and claws to help them grip to surfaces,’ Ade says. ‘So that would make sense.’

‘So, if we all high five each other, we’ll know,’ I say. ‘If our hands are smooth and normal, it’s all good; but if they’re rough, we’ll know we have an alien bug on our hands. Literally.’

‘But I have the hands of a potato farmer,’ Mak says, looking down at them like he’s just got to the front of the dinner queue and they’ve run out of curly fries. ‘They’re hard and covered with callouses.’

‘Hard and callousy is fine,’ I say, although I’m not one hundred per cent sure what a callous is. ‘Mum’s hands were more scratchy – like the spiky side of Velcro.’ I put my hand up for Mak to high five. He looks nervous, hesitates, and then does it. I don’t notice the callouses as much as his super-strength 220 which is annoyingly impressive, even when he’s not trying.

‘You’re clear,’ I nod. ‘Karim, Mak, high five each other to confirm.’

They slap palms and both give a relieved nod.

‘I’ll go next,’ Katja says. ‘I have nothing to hide and I want to make sure you guys are all telling the truth.’ She steps towards Mak, who puts his hand up and takes the high five and smiles. Then she fives Karim, and finally me. Not like I’ve been standing there waiting for it or anything. As her palm hits mine, I get a flashback to yesterday when we held hands for a bit because of the traumatic situation we were in. I figure it’s good to think about, cos I can assess if there have been any skin changes since then. Her palms are soft and perfectly warm like the paw pads on a kitten. ‘All good,’ she smiles. ‘Thank god for that.’

That leaves Ade and Chets.

‘Guys,’ I look from one to the other. ‘You’re up.’