‘I don’t know. I just—’ The feelings boiled up in her again – despair, hopelessness, guilt. Anger, too. Anger at herself, and Myrnin, and Oliver, and Jesse, and … the world. But mostly at herself, for all the mistakes she’d made. ‘It’s my fault.’ All the misery distilled down into that one, nuclear-hot three-word sentence. Toxic. And Claire covered her face with her hands, fighting back tears.

‘Ah, yes, lovely. The guilt phase. Just what we needed,’ she heard Myrnin sigh, and heard his head bang hard against the van.

Shane didn’t say anything. He just put his hand on her leg and kept it there, a gentle and constant pressure, as they drove on into the rising light of day.

They were about a mile out when the explosives went off. Claire gasped at the fireball and looked behind them; the other black van with the rest of their survivors was there, following closely. The smoke rose up into the clear morning air like a black balloon, and in another five minutes they’d gained the intersection with the interstate. Shane relaxed as they merged with traffic, heading for Boston. On the access road, sirens wailed – fire and rescue and police, heading out to the scene of the explosion.

Claire dried her tears on her sleeve and took in deep, centring breaths. ‘Are we going to get away with this?’ she asked.

‘Depends,’ Shane said. He was watching the rear-view mirror with special intensity. ‘If anyone connects these vans with the farm, and the explosions, maybe not. But they’re pretty generic, and if we’re lucky, most of Dr Anderson’s little playmates were out there at that farm. Even if they weren’t, I don’t think they’re going to be interested in talking to the cops about what kind of weird operation they had going – way too many questions to be answered. If we can hit it out of town and get back to Morganville, we’re fine.’

‘Promise?’ Claire asked.

‘I promise,’ Shane said. ‘I promise you, we’ll be all right.’

It was a promise he couldn’t keep, she knew that, but she loved him intensely for trying. All the differences she’d thought existed between them … those had fallen away, when it counted. She’d craved a normal life at MIT, but now … now, she had to face the fact that Morganville was never letting go of her. Even when she’d thought she was escaping for a while, it had followed her. No, it had been waiting for her.

And look what it had cost, this little bit of freedom. Look how many lives she’d ruined.

Claire let her eyes close. She was suddenly, overwhelmingly tired, and honestly, she had no idea how she was ever going to feel better, ever again.