‘Don’t matter what I think. And thing is, our pal Albert knows she’s here.’

‘Of course he does, Oliver! He brought her here!’

‘Looked more like she brought him here. Anyway, what’s the alternative? Dump him? For saving her?’

Albert started. He didn’t know exactly what being dumped entailed, but something told him he didn’t want to.

June shook her head. ‘No, that’s not what I’m saying.’

‘Then, my child,’ said Ollie, ‘there remains no alternative. We take them both, and we take them tonight.’

‘Tonight? We can’t take them tonight! You know the protocol. We can’t move till we let them know we’re coming, and let a safe window pass after the transmission, and—’

‘Look, June, there’s no time to argue about this. You know what the old man said. This is Priority Number One. We need to get her out of here, and on the double.’

‘But we just checked in, Ollie! We can’t transmit again, not so soon! It’s too risky! And what’s more, it’s against protocol and—’

‘Oh, hang your protocol! What part of anything is ever covered by protocol? I’ve told you before, June, graves are the only things that come in straight lines. Protocols and systems, that’s how machines operate. We can’t beat them at it. We beat them by being human. By improvising. Thinking on our feet, acting on our instincts—that’s how we stay ahead in the game. And that means we transmit again, now, and tell them we’re coming.’

She looked hard at him for a moment or two, the smouldering in her eyes slowly fading away, and then nodded. Ollie waved at her, grinning again.

Albert looked at them, a study in contrast, one slim and serious, the other corpulent and cheerful. His brow creased and creased some more. A lot of what he was hearing sounded like gibberish, but there was no denying that it was an unsettling feeling, being discussed as if he wasn’t even there. Then he realized that they were doing it because they knew he was completely in their power at the moment and the unsettling made way for unhappy.

Ollie turned, winking at Albert, ‘Trying to put the pieces together, eh? It’s simple enough, lad. I think that yarn of yours sounds bonkers enough to be true. And then there’s a little matter of what you’ve seen and heard here. Can’t have you running around to tell tales to Boskie now, can I?’

Albert opened his mouth to retort angrily, but Ollie just beamed at him and went on. ‘Oh, you’ll tell her, lad, whether you want to or not. So we’re not leaving you behind. If you do turn out to be legit, then he’ll know what to do with you. He always knows what to do.’