‘I am certain she does not,’ said Father. ‘But many people do. Sooner or later, she will find out.’

‘So that’s why people are out to get her? For revenge? No that doesn’t make sense. Not really. And anyway, what’s this got to do with the Code anyway, or—’

‘No, Albert, it is not about revenge. It is about opportunity. Opportunity, and hope.’

‘What? What do you mean? What does this have to do with Theo, or Codehunters, or the history of the City or … what’s any of this got to do with anything?’

Father looked at him, frowning. ‘Listen to me, Albert. To know what you are asking, we must go back to how it all started—to a time many years ago, a time before the Dome, or the City stood. Although it was not nearly as many years as you might think.’

‘Huh? Meaning?’

‘Meaning, Albert, that in order to understand what the Code really is, you must first understand why it was created. And for that, you need to know the story of everything.’

‘Everything?’

Father raised an eyebrow but, when he spoke, it was in response to what Albert had said. ‘Yes, Albert, everything. Because the story of the Code is the story of Robert, and Theo, and you and me and thousands of others whom neither of us will ever meet, and the City up above and the valley down below and a hundred other places and everyone who lives both there and here, everybody, everything. It is all connected.’

He paused to nod sagely at Albert, then went on. ‘But in time this too, will become clear to you. For the moment, let us go back some years, many years before you were born, to a world very different from the one you know, to one particular family. An old, powerful family, with a name known across the globe, a family ruled with a fist of iron by its patriarch. This is where it all really began, with this family, and this man. He was a man unlike any I have ever seen or heard of before or since, born with extraordinary natural gifts, into a position of privilege and power that few others have ever enjoyed. And, perhaps most crucially, he was a man who possessed the foresight, ruthlessness and unbridled ambition to use his talents to their fullest extent to achieve his objectives.