She turned to face me. ‘Don’t pretend you don’t know. Wallace told your predecessor that Casey’s going to try and find some way to destroy the Authority. I hate to be the one to say it, but if he can do that, it’d solve a hell of a lot of problems for the rest of us.’

I stared at her in disbelief. ‘You want to just stand by and let Casey commit genocide?’

‘No, I’m not saying that,’ she said, her voice taking on a defensive edge. ‘I’m just saying that if it came to that, we’d still be safe here on the island, with full access to the transfer stages. And I’m willing to bet that, if push came to shove, Major Howes and his soldiers would side with us against any Patriots still here on this alternate with us. We’d be able to take our time finding somewhere safe to go, without worrying about the Authority trying to stop us.’

A part of me that I didn’t like saw the appeal in what she was saying, and yet the flaws were immediately evident. ‘Do you seriously think either Howes or his men would be grateful to us for standing by while Casey murdered their entire world and everyone they had ever known?’

Rozalia clenched her jaw. ‘I didn’t say we’d stand by and let him do it.’

‘No,’ I said. ‘But maybe you’d prefer not to try too hard?’

Rozalia’s nostrils flared in anger, and she looked away. I didn’t have to be a genius to work out she was still hurting badly over Nadia, and to see how much it was affecting her thinking.

‘Look,’ I said, ‘we don’t know if Casey can pull something like this off – even assuming he’s really planning to do any such thing. We can’t be sure Wallace wasn’t lying to my predecessor.’

‘And if he can pull it off?’ asked Chloe, looking between us.

‘Well, then we’d better find him first.’

Chloe’s eyes grew suddenly wide. ‘The stage,’ she hissed excitedly at the both of us. ‘I think I know where it might be!’

‘You do?’

She grabbed hold of both Rozalia and me, pulling us close. ‘Don’t you remember when we passed the beached trawler on the coast road, on the way back into town this morning?’

‘Sure.’ I nodded. I remembered the rusting trawler, stranded on the beach and tipped over on its side.

‘I thought I saw something,’ she said. ‘I was so tired I thought I was just imagining it. But I swear I saw something moving down there, inside the hull.’

‘Inside it? Can you even get inside there?’ I asked.

‘You can walk right in,’ she said. ‘The hull broke in half when it was beached. You could easily hide a small portable stage in there if you wanted.’