‘Well, I trust Chantelle, OK? And that’s all you need to know. This works both ways, Yaz. You know nothing about me or my friends, I get that, but I know nothing about you lot either. You’re with the Doctor, so that’s good enough for me. I would hope it would be good enough for you too.’

Before Yaz could respond, Ace turned and opened one of the tall fridges, lifting out one of the boxes of Nitro-90. She removed several small spheres and slipped them into pocket-sized containers that she had designed specially to transport the explosives safely. Ignoring the look Yaz was giving her, she slid the containers into her bag. She didn’t care what Yaz thought of her. This was her choice, her responsibility, her insurance in case things went pear-shaped. She had her own ways of making sure everyone was kept safe.

She turned back to Yaz. ‘I’ll have a quick word with Ryan and Chantelle, OK? Check we all know just what we’re doing.’

‘Right,’ Yaz said. ‘Um … thanks.’

‘I do responsible pretty well these days.’ Ace smiled, swinging the bag up onto her shoulder. ‘Let’s get this done.’

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Ace had found the drive from Oxfordshire back to central London a long and awkward one, and she guessed Yaz felt the same. Any attempts at casual conversation had been half-hearted, and had quickly petered out. In the end both of them had given up, the silence just building the tension between them.

By the time Ace pulled up in the basement of the Charitable Earth building, they hadn’t spoken a word to each other for nearly an hour. Hoisting the holdall onto her shoulder, she led the way over to the lift and pressed the button for the 18th floor. As the lift sped its way towards the top floor, she decided that it was time to sort this problem out once and for all.

The doors opened and they stepped out into the penthouse apartment. Sorin was sitting directly in front of the lift staring at them balefully. Ace knew that there was no way that Sanaul wouldn’t have been checking in on him whilst she had been away, but she also knew that the cat would act as though he’d been utterly abandoned and would treat her accordingly for the next couple of hours at the very least – probably days. Scratching him behind the ears, she placed the bag on the floor and extracted the bottle of mucus and a tracking device. Sorin sniffed at them both suspiciously, then turned tail and stalked off into the shadows.

Yaz had crossed to the full-length windows and was staring out at the city. ‘Nice view.’ Try as she might, she couldn’t hide the fact that she was impressed.

That, thought Ace, was a good sign; someone who appreciated a good view couldn’t be all bad.