She assumed he was talking about the tomb and felt her face flood with the familiar hot colour. ‘Thank you, sir. Sirs.’

Grint performed the introductions.

‘Lockland, this is Major Callen. Overseeing new recruits is part of his remit.’

He smiled at her. ‘Hello, Lockland. I’m sorry we haven’t met before this – I usually get to speak to all the teams at the beginning of their gruntwork but everything has been a little hectic recently. How are you finding things?’

She was so surprised she barely managed to stammer, ‘Very well, thank you, sir.’ She realised her answer barely made sense and blushed harder than ever.

Grint stared out of the window and the so-far-unnamed captain folded his arms and stared at her unnervingly.

Callen continued. ‘We’ve been watching you.’

The familiar panic started up again. Why would they have been watching her? Had they heard about her little meltdown in the tomb after all? Was she being eased out? Psychologically unstable.

She realised the major was still speaking and pulled herself together.

‘So,’ he was saying in a friendly tone. ‘What are your plans, Lockland?’

She looked at him in surprise. Actually, he was rather nice. A little older than Ellis – considerably older than she was herself – with dark blond hair and crinkly blue eyes. He continued. ‘Where do you see yourself going after you finish your gruntwork?’

She was so surprised they expected her even to complete her gruntwork that she was momentarily lost for words. It would have been nice to have a coherent career plan to place in front of him – the sort of thing North could probably produce in her sleep – but that was never going to happen, so she told the truth.

‘Well, I haven’t given it a lot of thought, sir. There’s still a few months to go yet and I’m concentrating on trying to do a good job now.’

A nice, safe answer.

He nodded. ‘Well, you might want to consider joining my crew. Always room for someone like you.’

She felt another wave of hot colour flood over her. Her face burned like a beacon. Like me? she thought. What am I like?

Major Callen pushed his chair back, nodded and walked away, followed by the captain.

Grint lingered. ‘Bear it in mind, Lockland. Could be your big chance.’

Unable to stop herself, she babbled, ‘Yes, indeed, sir. Thank you. Definitely something to think about.’ She paused. She should let it go. Her face burned again. ‘But why?’

‘I don’t follow.’

‘Why me, sir?’

‘You stuck to your post. You did the job. A few people have their eyes on you now, Lockland.’