Yuichi rooted around inside the supply tent until he located the laminated maps of the city, then spread them out for us on the fold-down table. Once again, I found myself studying a map of Sao Paolo, a tangle of blue and red lines sketched over it with marker pens indicating the last-known safe routes. My eyes followed the length of the Pinheiros as it cut diagonally north to south through the city. A circle around several city blocks in the north-west indicated the location of Retièn’s laboratories.

‘Same procedure as before,’ said Rozalia. ‘We stick to the safe routes as much as possible. It’s a long time until nightfall, which is to our advantage since we won’t have to deal with any night patrols.’

‘It’s settled, then,’ said Yuichi. ‘We head for the labs. The other stage has to be there.’

Oskar peered at him. ‘And if it isn’t?’

‘Then we figure something else out,’ Yuichi spat at him from between gritted teeth.

‘Hey.’ Oskar put his hands up in mock surrender. ‘I was just—’

‘No, please,’ Yuichi barked. ‘Feel free to share your brilliant and incisive insights. But in the meantime, how about we just go fucking look and see what we find?’

I looked away so Oskar couldn’t see me smirk.

We were soon off, all four of us crammed into the bile-free SUV. I gripped the wheel hard as I guided us once more beneath the ruined bridge, across the shallow waters and back up onto the road on the other side. I soon threw caution to the wind, taking my foot off the accelerator only when I was absolutely forced to.

‘Careful,’ Yuichi shouted, bracing himself against the ceiling with one hand as we hit a particularly nasty bump. ‘I don’t think I could deal with the irony if you wind up trashing the car before we get there.’

I didn’t reply, my eyes fixed straight ahead as I picked out routes around wrecked cars and rubble. I’d come this way enough times now that I pretty much knew it off by heart.

I slowed only once I reached the elevated motorway over the Pinheiros so I could navigate my way past the blockade of cars. As I eased past the obstruction, I couldn’t help but glance towards the high-rise car park, only to find that it was now almost entirely demolished.

I caught a glimpse of a line of bee-brains, straggling along a street far below. What if, I wondered, Nadia hadn’t simply drowned as I had assumed? What if the bee-brains had taken her alive? Would they have made her into one of them? I suddenly imagined Nadia among their number, and ground my teeth until my jaws ached. As soon as we were past the blockade, I floored the accelerator again.