So he told her the story of how he had met Theo, or most of it, leaving out the gory bits. When he got to the part about taking her with him, he realized she was looking at him strangely, the gun now pointing downwards, which was the furthest it had been from him since it had made its debut. Then he realized she was talking to him again, and he hadn’t heard a word—he’d been too busy noticing that she’d put the gun down on the table.

‘I beg your pardon,’ he said. ‘I didn’t quite understand.’

‘I said, not too many people would have reacted that way.’

‘Yeah, I think ’e’s all right,’ confirmed Theo.

‘For a Domechild, I mean,’ she added, as an afterthought, wrinkling her nose as she said it.

Albert looked back at Sorrow, and found her studying him. ‘So you found Theo and took her in. And now you’re in trouble.’

‘Yes.’

‘What sort of trouble?’

‘They’re after ’im! And they’re gonna send machines ter get ’im, that’s what the warnin’ said!’

Sorrow turned, looking hard at Albert. ‘Warning? You were warned that they were coming for you? By someone you know?’

‘Yes,’ he said after a pause.

‘Warned of what exactly?’

‘That she’d ordered me brought in.’

‘She?’

‘Bosquanet.’

She looked at him steadily, unblinkingly, her expression unreadable. ‘Why don’t you tell me all of it?’

He looked down at her as she leant forward, elbows resting on the table, chin supported in the heels of her palms, gazing straight at him.

So he told her everything, starting with how he had found Theo and how the machine had begun blackmailing him. She listened impassively, without a trace of emotion on her face, except when her mask slipped to reveal an unmistakable look of surprise when she heard of SUE’s demand to be unplugged, and then once again, when she heard of Bosquanet’s sudden order for his interrogation.

She didn’t say anything for a while though, just held him with a stare that revealed nothing of what she was thinking. Finally, she spoke.

‘That’s quite the tale. I’m not even sure I understand most of it. But I think you might be telling the truth. If you were lying, you’d probably have come up with something a lot more—well, credible. So my guess is you’re not a plant.’

‘A plant?’ he said, bewildered.

She waved her hand, as if to dismiss his question. ‘Never mind. The important thing is you’ve brought Theo back to us. We’ve been looking for her for quite a while.’

He turned to glance at Theo, who was looking studiously away, as if she couldn’t hear them at all. ‘So, you’ll take her home?’

‘Yes.’

‘To her father?’

‘What did you say?’ The gun was pointing at him again.