‘Anders and Grint – where were they?’

‘With me. No, wait. No. Grint disappeared somewhere. Then Anders. They both pushed off.’ He peered at Grint.

Markham stirred Grint with his foot. ‘Where did you go?’

Grint tried to lift his head and glare. ‘None of your business, shorty.’

‘Where did you go?’

Silence.

‘Well,’ said Markham eventually. ‘I think you have your culprit.’

At ground level, Grint sighed and then said, very quietly and with enormous reluctance, ‘I went for a slash.’

‘There was about to be a massive firefight,’ said Luke, in disbelief. ‘Illegals everywhere, a trainee to keep an eye on, and you wandered off to pee?’

There was a long silence. ‘I need to go more at night.’

‘What?’ said Peterson. ‘Oh.’

‘What?’ said Jane, mystified.

‘Men’s problems.’

‘Really? You have those?’

‘Beyond count,’ said Luke. ‘It’s not just male-pattern baldness and erectile dysfunction, you know. Or so they tell me.’

‘That’s enough,’ said Ellis, in some sympathy for the unfortunate Grint. ‘Roll him over and cut him free.’

‘No,’ said Max.

‘I give the orders here, Max.’

‘Not at the moment, you don’t. You’re out of the game. This is not a normal situation. Security takes over. Markham’s Head of Security. He calls the shots.’

Markham eyed Grint thoughtfully.

‘You could do as Jane does,’ said Luke, helpfully. ‘She asks them to promise not to escape and they do. Or rather – they don’t.’

‘Parrish,’ said Ellis, wearily. ‘Is there any power on earth that would shut you up?’

‘You could tell me you’re pregnant. Speaking from experience, that tends to render me speechless.’

‘Well,’ said Max, closing the medkit. ‘Far be it from St Mary’s to interfere in what is solely a Time Police shambles, but what are you going to do now? Anders has almost certainly gone straight back to TPHQ. I think we can all imagine the story he will be telling them. They’ll send a team.’

‘Nothing so girlie,’ said Luke. ‘They’ll send a full force equipped with a shoot-on-sight order, that’s what they’ll do. They’ll shoot the lot of us. Me, Jane and Matthew, for certain. Ellis probably, since he appears to be the target du jour, and probably St Mary’s as well just because they can, and call it a good day’s work.’

‘Wow,’ said Max. ‘It’s all go in the Time Police these days, isn’t it? The way you lot are trying to knock each other off, it’s a miracle there’s anyone left.’

‘You should leave, Max,’ said Ellis. ‘All of you. They could be here at any moment and I doubt they’ll stop to ask questions.’

She shook her head. ‘Come with us. We’ll all go back to St Mary’s and you can sort things out from there.’

Jane, who had been thinking, shook her head. ‘With respect, ma’am – no.’

Heads turned to look at her.