She wrenched herself free. ‘Openin’ ’em! Whaddya think?’

‘You are not trying to open any doors.’

‘Wanna bet?’

‘No, no,’ he said hastily. ‘But anyway you won’t be able to. They only open from the inside.’

‘They might open for me. My grandad always told me I was the key, y’know.’

‘But why do you want to open all the doors?’

‘How else do we find it? There ain’t no numbers on these doors!’

‘I know where it is, Theo. It’s the sixth door on the left. Fourth from where we are now.’

She looked at him with sudden respect. ‘Howdja know?’

‘The numbers start from the left,’ he replied, walking down the passage. A moment later, she caught up with him and they made their way forward, until they stood in front of the honeycomb-shaped door. He began to raise a hand, hesitated for a moment, and then went ahead and knocked, turning to look anxiously down the passageway, his heart beating furiously. There was no sound or sign anyone had heard. It was only when he turned back to the door that he realized that this applied to his knock as well. He glanced down at Theo, and knocked again. Nothing.

‘Lemme try,’ said Theo grimly, and without waiting for an answer, she went at the door. Still no response.

‘I don’ get it,’ she said, sounding suddenly unsure. ‘This is where yer supposed ter come ter find her. It’s supposed to open.’

He could feel the old, familiar desperation returning. He’d known this would happen, secretly known it ever since she’d reeled off that address so flawlessly, ever since they’d actually made it here, seemingly without anyone noticing. He had just raised his hand to hammer uselessly at the door again when there was a flurry of footsteps from behind it and it opened, leaving him standing with his fist in front of his face, looking like a one-armed boxer trying to defend himself.

He saw her eyes first, shining in the widening crack as the door swung open. Eyes that narrowed in surprise, and then slid past him and widened in an unmistakable expression of shock.

A second later the door opened, and Albert felt his brain do a somersault and then a few more gyrations of dubious description in the quest to make sense of what had just happened. It failed. Incredible, unbelievable, improbable as it was, it was her—yes, of course it was her, there was no way he could be mistaken, he’d spent enough time looking at her. He was standing face-to-face with Sorrow.