‘Got your shots?’ asked a slightly green Oskar, as I joined him and Haden on the stage. I rubbed my arm where a medic had given me multiple injections the previous day and nodded. Oskar’s bull mastiff came over to sniff at me before collapsing back at her master’s feet in a sprawl. A technician sat next to the stage’s control rig, looking bored.

‘Sure I have,’ I replied. ‘Is that thing coming with us?’ I asked, nodding at the dog.

Oskar just chuckled. ‘Of course.’

Oskar was small and rail-thin, like a jockey, and wore a pair of mirror shades too big for his face. I had learned the hard way not to make jokes about the collection of fetishes he wore strung around his neck, and in which he put a worrying degree of faith. This evening he was wearing a rabbit’s foot, a crucifix and a number of other less identifiable objects, strung on chains and leather twine. Then I remembered the half-coin hanging around my neck and wondered if I was really so different.

I nodded at the pimped-up SUV. ‘Where the hell did that thing come from?’

Now I was closer to it, the car looked like some millionaire survivalist’s weekend excursion vehicle. It had four enormous, rugged-looking wheels, along with a swept-back windscreen and mesh-covered headlights. The windows were small and high, while the chassis was covered over with some kind of armour plating. Small, directional klieg lights had been mounted above the windscreen.

Oskar pulled the door open on the driver’s side, and I saw an interior of thick, creamy-coloured leather. Both the interior and the exterior were studded with reinforcing bolts. ‘Front and rear night vision cameras,’ Oskar explained with no small degree of pride. ‘Tinted armoured glass throughout, oxygen survival kit, inbuilt fire-control system. There’s even shielding against explosives built into the undercarriage.’ He slapped the hard steel exterior. ‘This baby’s got everything.’

‘What about the EVs?’ I asked, referring to the excursion vehicles that were ubiquitous on every alternate I had so far visited.

‘There’s one there, but we won’t be using it,’ Haden explained, his eyes glinting silver. ‘Not manoeuvrable enough, and too big as well. Plus, these things are a lot faster and nimbler.’

‘Casey found a whole warehouse full of them in the same place we’re going,’ Oskar added. ‘Any one of these babies would set you back a quarter of a million in anyone’s money – this universe or any other.’ He reached inside the truck and stroked the soft leather interior. ‘Your drug warlord’s preferred mode of travel. And bulletproof, of course.’

‘Something’s missing,’ I said. ‘Like maybe a turret.’

They both chuckled. Even Lucky let out a bark, her tail thumping at the stage.