“Let’s scan you anyway while you’re standing there. They say it even warms you up a bit, being scanned.” The man took out a machine that looked like an old-fashioned credit-card reader, pressed a button and moved it up and down in front of Effie.

“Not much M-currency, eh? You sure about that? This says you’ve got just over fifty thousand. If you could convert that into money you’d be a millionaire.”

“Fifty thousand? That can’t be right.”

The stallholder shrugged. “Well, you can afford thousands of copies of this book. Not that there were that many printed, of course. Maybe five hundred original copies? They say it was the only book ever to be banned in the Otherworld. And simply because of its title! Stupid, if you ask me. Not just banning books of course, which is always wrong—but doing it without even reading them first. Shall I wrap it for you?”

“Yes, please,” said Effie.

“A pleasure,” said the stallholder, handing over Effie’s package.

“Thank you,” said Effie.

16

THE STARK WHITE ROOM was silent for a few seconds.

“See,” said Wolf to Lucy. “They don’t want to eliminate me. Why am I still here?”

“Why indeed?” said a deep voice, belonging to a man in a suit who had just entered the room. He looked odd, and not just because of his clothes. His face was too shiny, as if it had been assembled from plastic. In fact he looked like a doll whose wrapping had just been removed.

“Aileen,” he said. “Please leave us.”

Lucy got up. As she did so she morphed from being a girl of Wolf’s age into a woman in a white blouse and silver skirt. She swept out of the room elegantly but efficiently. She made Wolf think briefly of some film he’d watched as a kid where people were robots.

“Aileen?” said Wolf. “But—”

“You are an interesting case,” said the man. “I need to ask you just a few more questions, and then—”

“Where’s my sister?” said Wolf. “If you have her somewhere here—”

“All in good time,” said the man.

The lights flickered briefly in the laboratory.

“All in good time,” said the man again, in exactly the same tone as before. Was Wolf having a weird attack of déjà vu?

“Who are you?” said Wolf. “And where am I?”