‘I’d love to hear somebody with something constructive to contribute,’ said Colby. He looked at Albert. ‘Well? This plan is your baby. How do we do it?’

Albert looked at him and shook his head too.

‘Anyone?’

They sat in silence for a bit, after which they all spoke together. When they managed to restore some sort of order, a series of daring and successively more outlandish schemes followed, all of which Colby shot down instantly.

‘No, we can’t tell them Father changed his mind! What’s wrong with you?’

‘Really? You want to tunnel through the mountain? By morning? We might as well just try to walk in there!’

Finally he jumped to his feet, a disgusted look on his face. ‘Look, this is getting us nowhere. Tell you what, Albert, let the three of us put our heads together on this for a bit. It’s what we’re trained to do, supposedly, although the last few minutes,’ and here he looked at Kieran, who was the author of several of the more bizarre suggestions, ‘don’t say much for the training. Why don’t you run along for now, and meet us back here in two hours?’

‘Two hours? And you think we’ll have a plan by then.’

‘We’d better,’ he said harshly. ‘Because that’s when we’re going in.’

Albert stared at him. ‘In two hours? As in, tonight in two hours?’

‘When did you think? Next week?’ He shook his head emphatically. ‘No, that’s when it’ll have to be. There’s no point going through all this to talk to a dead man, and Marcus has already been in the Pit half the day. And the girl’s running out of time every second. Plus, the guard at the innermost perimeter will change then. We move in two hours or not at all.’

Albert looked at him, feeling a strange, wild excitement, and also fear—fear of what would happen if they failed, to them and to Theo. He nodded.

Colby gestured towards the steps and they began to make their way down. When they reached the level below, the one where Theo’s tent was, Albert nodded to them. ‘All right, I’m going back to the tent for a bit, then. See you.’

Colby suddenly grinned around at them. ‘It’ll be a piece of cake,’ he said, sounding strangely cheery, almost as if he were putting it on. ‘Don’t forget, boys, there are factors in our favour, too.’

‘Such as?’ said Albert.

‘Such as the count which will be beginning down in the Square by then. They’ll all be a little focused on that. Which is good for us.’

Albert looked at him. ‘The counting begins in two hours? Then when does the voting begin?’

Colby looked at him with narrowed eyes. ‘Didn’t you hear the bell? It’s begun.’