They left the road they were on, joined another, turned off that on to the narrowest road so far and took it until there were trees on either side and they were headed uphill. The narrow road met another narrow road, became a slightly bigger road, and continued on past a large concrete building set back a little, surrounded on three sides by trees. It was wide but low, squat and ugly and functional. There were three small sheds on the opposite side of the road, each with rusted padlocks hanging from rusted loops.

Milo swung round, parked outside the bunker. The heavy door was open, the lights on inside. Kelly came out and Amber watched her approach in the side mirror. She hesitated, then reverted. Milo said nothing as she got out.

“Hey,” said Kelly.

“Hey,” said Amber, not quite meeting her eye. “You got the code, then.”

Kelly nodded. “How did you do?”

Milo got out and the trunk sprang open, and Jesper raised his head and blinked.

“Cool,” said Kelly. “Any word from Virgil and Javier?”

“We were hoping you’d spoken to them.”

“Linda tried calling, but got no response,” said Kelly. “That doesn’t mean anything. I saw Virgil try to answer a call earlier. He doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing.”

Milo hauled Jesper out of the trunk. “Who’s the Narrow Man going after now?”

“I don’t know,” said Jesper. “I swear! He didn’t tell me! He just said he’d take care of it.”

Milo glanced at Amber. “We’ll give them another few minutes. It isn’t even ten yet. If they’re still not here by then, we’ll go looking.”

“I can help,” said Jesper. “If you let me, I can speak with the Narrow Man.”

“You’re going to want to shut up now,” said Milo.

“Can I talk to you?” Kelly asked, lightly touching Amber’s arm. They walked over to the sheds. “Now’s probably not the best time for this, I get that, but I just wanted to apologise for how I acted earlier.”

Amber shook her head. “I’m the one who should be saying sorry. I panicked, I think. I didn’t know what to do or how to act or—”

“No, Amber, seriously, I should have been more understanding. You probably didn’t even mean to change. I’m the one who overreacted.”

“Well, like, you couldn’t have known, could you?”

“I’m really sorry,” said Kelly. “Forgive me?”

Amber hesitated. “Ah, balls.”

“What?”

“It wasn’t an accident. I did mean to change.”

Kelly smiled. “Were you trying to lie to me just there?”

“Slightly. You kissed me and I panicked, and I’m sorry. That’s never happened to me before.”

“What part?”

“You know, the … the whole …”

Kelly raised her eyebrows. “Was that your first kiss?”