‘If you say so. Now, Hugo,’ she began, reloading the massive weapon with a thermalite the size of a baked-bean tin, ‘where are we headed?’

‘The Siddons,’ he said, ‘to pick up a Somnagraph from room 902.’

‘Game on. Will Aurora be there?’

‘I can almost guarantee not.’

Within fifteen minutes we were parked just short of the Siddons by about ten yards. Foulnap went out first into the blizzard, trailing a safety line, and we both followed and caught up with him outside the Dormitorium. We all entered the lobby one by one, weapons at the ready. I had my Bambi, but also a Cowpuncher slung around my shoulder, which every single training manual ever written said shouldn’t be discharged indoors unless ‘there was absolutely no alternative’.

The windows had been hastily repaired with layers of canvas and pieces of wood, but they still rattled and shook with the buffeting of the wind. The Winterlounge looked empty, and we could see Laura Strowger sitting behind the desk in the porter’s lodge.

‘I’m sorry about Jonesy,’ said Laura to Toccata. ‘I gathered up what I could find of her and put it all in the cold store. These were her personal things. Her Silver Storks and stuff.’

She gave Toccata a clear plastic bag. Toccata took it without speaking and shoved the bundle into her jacket.

‘They took Birgitta to HiberTech,’ said Laura, ‘and Lloyd said he was going to take a  . . . walk outside. He was only in his shirt sleeves so I don’t think he’s coming back.’

He must have known about the abuses happening on the ninth floor. He probably tipped off Hooke, too. Perhaps the Cold Way Out was the best thing for him.

‘Is there anyone from HiberTech still in the building?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Laura, ‘but I expect so – be careful.’

‘You stay in the lobby,’ said Foulnap to Toccata. ‘Charlie, with me.’

Toccata nodded, then moved back into a defensive position where she could control all possible entrances to the lobby.

‘Here,’ I said, handing Laura the Instamatic camera, ‘I think I might have got something.’

‘Such as?’

I showed her my missing little finger.

‘Oh,’ she said, ‘right.’

I then ran up the stairs after Foulnap.

‘Does Toccata really eat nightwalkers with mint sauce?’ I asked as we reached the first landing and started towards the second.

‘No, that’s just a story she puts around to intimidate people.’

‘It works.’

We made it to the ninth floor without encountering any HiberTech operatives, then padded silently along the corridor and stopped outside room 902. I carefully unlocked the door and let it swing open, half expecting an agent to be inside, but it was empty aside from the steamer trunk. Foulnap produced a large screwdriver from his coat and levered off the lock.

The trunk was empty.

It was too much to hope they’d leave something as valuable as a Somnagraph once they’d been rumbled.