“Are you sure you’ve got the right house?” Jasper made as if to approach the box, but the taller of the two delivery men stepped in front of him, pulling an order form from the back pocket of his jeans.

“Says here to deliver to Jasper Tooley, 21 Tuttlebury Avenue.”

Jasper didn’t look convinced. “And it’s company policy to deliver exercise balls preinflated?”

“Absolutely. It’s . . . special heavy air. Better for stretching.” That voice sounded dimly familiar, but with his cap pulled down, Daisy couldn’t see his face. “If you wouldn’t mind coming to sign for it. The paperwork’s back in the van . . .”

Grumbling, Jasper retreated through the doors, pulling them shut behind him, and Daisy settled back into her meditation on the mat.

Susan shouldered her bag of supplies—a family-size bag of pickled onion crisps and a sports bottle loaded with ice water—and counted to twenty. When she clicked the spring-loaded lock inside the crate, the side swung open like a giant door to reveal . . .

A perfectly respectable basement. Recently renovated by the looks of it, with exposed brick walls and expensive spotlights. Squishy sofas and beanbag chairs skirted the edge of the room, and on top of them all, in varying stages of dozing to flat-out unconscious, slouched maybe ten or so acolytes of Zoise. Anyone conscious enough to notice the intruder in their midst clearly couldn’t be bothered to do anything about it. Three of the Brethren were sitting facing the wall and sipping tea, giggling at patterns in the bricks, while a small cluster near the middle of the room appeared to be attempting actual yoga, albeit of the sitting variety.

At the sound of feet on the stairs, Susan drew back inside the box, but it was only Esther.

“Yogi Bear reporting for duty,” she said, an elated expression on her face. “Hostile two is down. Repeat, hostile two is down.”

She was positively buzzing with pride, and Susan was feeling indulgent.

“Full debrief, soldier.”

“I sprayed a load of half-chewed cookie and herbal tea into her hair.”

“You didn’t.”

“I did. Pretended to sneeze.” Esther looked very pleased with herself. “She’ll be showering that out for a week.”

Susan clamped a hand onto her shoulder and gave her a reassuring shake. “You are equal parts revolting and resourceful. I’m proud of you. Now, on to hostage extraction . . .”

The two stepped over the Brethren on the mat—Esther stopping to poke one of them in the nose and marvel at the lack of response—and paused next to where Daisy was lying flat on her back, hands folded gently on her chest in a position Susan would have called the Cadaver.

Esther crouched down, concerned. “You don’t think she’s sacrificed herself already, do you?”

13
TRUST EXERCISES