‘Remember, this is not your first jump. You’ve done this before. You’ve accompanied and observed other teams. You’ve practised simulations. The only difference between those jumps and this one is that today you’re in charge of yourselves. As you will be in the future. However, Officer North and I will be monitoring your progress should you find yourself in any difficulties.’ He paused, but there was no reaction. ‘Very well, Mr Parrish. You may proceed.’

The ramp came down and they marched out. At the bottom, Lockland looked back over her shoulder. Ellis and North were sitting at the console, drinking coffee. North made a shooing motion then the ramp came up behind them and Lockland suddenly felt very alone.

Looking around, they appeared to be in some kind of public area. A large open concrete space was before them, surrounded on three sides by garages with heavily graffitied up-and-over doors. Old pieces of shredded plastic, caught for eternity in the branches of a dying tree, fluttered in a light breeze. In one corner, a rusted old wreck of a car perched precariously on crumbling bricks. Weeds grew between the cracks in the oil-stained concrete – the only green things in sight. Litter had blown into small heaps. A faint smell of burning rubber permeated the area and an air of weary defeat hung over everything.

Above them, the small drone which had silently followed them down the ramp hovered unseen.

‘Well,’ said Parrish, stirring something unidentifiable with his boot, ‘I’m betting this is the sort of place where the appearance of armoured police officers isn’t going to cause any sort of stir at all.’

There was no response from his teammates.

‘He needs to get them moving,’ said North, adjusting the pod’s cameras to tracking mode. ‘They can’t stand there all day.’

The same thought had obviously occurred to Parrish. ‘Right,’ he said, crisply, suddenly realising he should have done this before they left the pod. ‘Who’s got the address?’

Lockland pulled out her notebook. ‘Seventeen Beaver Avenue.’

‘Any idea where that is?’

She shook her head.

‘Why not? You should have checked that before you left the pod.’

‘Leave her alone,’ said Farrell.

‘Oh, great. Now you decide to talk.’

He shrugged. ‘It’s hard to get a word in when you’re around.’

‘It’s over there,’ said Lockland, quickly, before the quarrel could develop.

‘How do you know?’ demanded Parrish.

‘Um . . . because it’s the only exit from this space?’

Parrish sighed. ‘Great. I’m with a dummy and a smart arse.’

‘And we’re with a dickhead,’ said Farrell.

Parrish rounded on him. ‘Is that why you don’t talk? Because you never have anything useful to say?’

‘Dear God,’ said North, back in the pod. ‘Permission to nip out and bang their stupid heads together?’

‘They have to sort these things out,’ said Ellis, calmly. ‘It’s all perfectly normal.’