Benny sighed. ‘I haven’t been clear about what I’ve got you into, have I? I thought that the two who attacked me had got hold of it. I was planning to nick it back off them. Unless the ones with the cannon are a different bunch, then they still must think that I’ve got it.’

‘What is that in your mouth?’ Alexander asked, holding out a hand to the cat.

Wolsey stepped forward, watching Constance as he came. He dropped the thing in his jaws as he rubbed his head along Alexander’s hand.

Alexander picked the muddied scrap up. ‘Bit of lace collar.’ He glanced up at Constance. ‘Just like yours.’

‘Goodness, so it is!’ Constance turned to look, slipped the pistol from her pocket, pointed it at Wolsey and fired.

The shot just missed, and the cat leapt away, bounding off into the forest.

Benny jumped to her feet, but Constance jumped with her, shoving the revolver into her neck. ‘Damned cats,’ she muttered. Then she whistled.

From higher up the slope, two armed figures appeared, running quickly downhill and covering Benny and Alexander with their weapons.

‘Allow me to introduce August and Hoff,’ the being that had been Constance told the others.

‘You’re⁠ —’ Benny shook her head in frustration. ‘I should have realized.’

‘Not at all,’ said Greeneye. ‘I thought we were getting on rather well. Resolving as a dew and all that. Tell me, do you prefer me as a man or a woman?’

‘Do you do amphibians?’

Alexander looked between the three aliens. ‘If this is a disguise, what have you done with the real Constance?’

‘Stew,’ August told him. He clapped Greeneye on the shoulder and took the revolver off him while Hoff disarmed Bernice. ‘Now, since it seems that neither of us have the prize we’re after, I think you ought to come back to our base with us and have a little chat, don’t you?’

Chapter Seven

Friends and Other Lovers

Rocastle stood in the middle of the rear playing field, his back straight, his chest proudly inflated, his swagger stick tucked under his arm. He wore his old uniform, the one he’d worn in the Transvaal, his campaign medal ribbons on the breast.

The boys stood before him in a square, at attention. Hutchinson, Merryweather and the other Captains stood at the front, their OTC uniforms neatly pressed and clean.

The outfits were a light tan. Nobody would mistake them for the real thing, but they did give the lads a soldierly air. ‘All present and correct, Captain Merryweather?’ he asked.

‘One absentee, sir. Dean, sir.’

‘Does anybody have a reason for Dean’s absence?’

Inwardly, Anand flinched, but he kept his gaze straight forward, not saying a word.