He shook his head. Irritatingly calm. ‘We have a little time. Yes, they will have worked out that it was the alarm that was faulty and not a pod, but regulations will still require them to run full diagnostics on all the pods before they can be used again. At the same time, they’re going to be busy doing the PR thing – opening the doors, reassuring the public, the authorities and so on. They might even have to submit to some sort of inspection. It’ll be a while before they can get around to us.’

She frowned. ‘And when they do . . . Luke, they’re not going to be happy.’

‘They’re never happy.’

‘They’ll track us here, eventually. They could be on their way right now.’

He turned from the console with that smug I’m Luke Parrish and I’m amazing look that made her want to slap him. And then, having slapped him, really get stuck in and do him some seriously enjoyable damage. She was already wanted for one murder. Two would make very little difference.

He was smirking. ‘They’re not going to have any spare people for a while.’

‘Luke, it’s not when they leave – it’s when they arrive. You know that.’

‘They don’t have to arrive. They’re already here.’

Just as her heart rate was beginning to slow, everything kicked up again. ‘What?’

‘I’ll tell you in a moment. Just let me concentrate on shutting this down.’

He busied himself at the console, shutting everything down.

She looked around. ‘What about Matthew? What will happen to him?’

‘Well, I very much hope he’ll receive tip-top medical treatment and be as right as rain in no time.’

‘You had the setting on maximum,’ she said accusingly, still struggling with the Parrish world view that he’d actually made things better.

‘It had to look good. For his own protection. It was his idea.’

She was not reassured. ‘They’ll know he was involved, surely.’

‘They’ll suspect him, obviously, but there’s no proof. It’s well known that he and I don’t really get on. Why would he help me? And he was disguised in a radiation suit. No one saw his face. The suit’s disappeared –’ he nodded at the heap in the corner – ‘and best of all, he’s stretched out on the Pod Bay floor, deeply unconscious.’

‘But won’t they wonder what was he doing in the Pod Bay in the first place?’

‘They’ll discover a technical manual and a couple of technical scratchpads and everyone will think he was just in there having a bit of a tinker.’

‘Without permission?’

‘Well, the poor sod never got the chance, did he? The alarms went off and then I shot him.’

She put her head in her hands. ‘Oh God, Luke.’

‘He’ll be fine. Tough little bugger.’