‘A wild accusation, if ever I heard one. She wouldn’t know a real fact if it jumped up and bit her on the arse. I have an idea why Logan brought you here, but what’s confusing me is that Aurora wants you here too.’

‘I’m sorry?’

‘Why do you think she marooned you here?’

‘She didn’t maroon me,’ I said, ‘the stationmaster did.’

‘The lines were down from Slumberdown minus two to plus eight,’ said Toccata. ‘The only way the stationmaster could know if you delayed the train in Cardiff was if Aurora told her. Turn up soon after you missed your train, did she? As if by magic?’

‘Well, yes,’ I said.

‘Did she suggest you shouldn’t tell us you were here?’

I nodded.

‘Exactly. So: why is she interested in you remaining in Sector Twelve?’

I didn’t know quite what to think. Aurora had told me Toccata would be difficult – and unlikely to tell the truth. But now it looked as though Aurora herself might have been manipulative.

‘I don’t know,’ I said again.

Toccata looked at me for almost a minute without saying anything.

‘Where did you meet Aurora today?’

‘The basement of the Siddons.’

‘Met her by accident there too, did you?’

‘Why, yes . . . ’ I stopped. It might not have been an accident there, either. She’d have known I might go to get the Sno-Trac, and it would have been child’s play to empty the air reservoir so I couldn’t start the engine. ‘No, I was  . . . ’

I was about to say ‘trying to get a Sno-Trac out of here’ but thought perhaps not.

‘Yes or no? What were you doing?’

‘We were both in the basement of the Siddons. I was  . . . on an errand for Porter Lloyd and Aurora was looking for Tricksy walkers to take to HiberTech.’

Toccata grunted and looked at Jonesy.

‘We missed some?’

‘Six,’ said Jonesy with a shrug, ‘Lloyd sent a memo but it was mislaid. Three survived, Wonky retired Baggy and the other two I dealt with.’

‘I don’t like what HiberTech do with them,’ said Toccata. ‘Pull them apart, stick them back together, hope for the best, use them as mindless drones. It’s not dignified, even for a deadhead. What else happened? Leave out nothing.’

I considered my oath carefully. Aurora had specifically told me not to tell anyone. I wasn’t sure, but was an oath made to one of them binding on both? Probably not. But since my oath to Aurora began the moment we tied our walkers to her truck outside the Siddons, anything before this was knowledge I could share.

‘She gave me some advice about early rising,’ I said, feeling uncomfortable under Toccata’s baleful monogaze, ‘eat lots, keep warm, watch out for walkers, avoid Jim Treacle and the drowsies, that kind of stuff – then we parted outside the Siddons.’

‘That’s it?’

‘That’s it.’