‘Nice,’ Ed said, beaming. ‘I smashed you last time.’

‘I’ve got jobs to do in the polytunnels and around the house. If my chest calms down, we can go for a run together after lunch.’

Ed liked this idea. ‘And lift weights afterwards?’

Harry laughed. ‘You’re turning into a proper gym rat.’

Ed lifted his arms to show a chunky bicep. ‘All natural,’ he said. ‘Unlike some people in this house …’

57 ONE-POINT-SIX BILLION

Fresh from her shower, and dressed in a business-like grey skirt and black blouse combo, Charlie rolled back a rug, exposing a circular metal floor hatch.

The house had been built in the 1980s, when nuclear fall-out shelters were all the rage. The underground space now served as Charlie’s lab, and she clanked down a metal ladder, walked an eight-foot section of tunnel, then ducked through the frame of a metal door, the airtight rubber seals of which had long since perished.

The backbone of Charlie’s lab was the sequencing, printing and replicating units she’d taken from Mango’s RV three years earlier. To the best of Charlie’s knowledge, Mango and her family were all still alive. Luckily for Charlie, the same couldn’t be said for magician Helen Back, or the agents who’d been investigating Mango’s operation.

Charlie’s lawyer had advised that the FBI case against her would be on file somewhere, but the aftermath of Killer-T had left law enforcement with a depleted staff and a huge caseload. It was unlikely anyone would revive a case where lead investigators and the originating witness were dead.

After grabbing a foil-lined cool bag out of a benchtop freezer, Charlie took fifteen sealed glass vials from a refrigerator. She laid them carefully in the bag and topped it with protective foam to stop the contents rattling.

She lowered this gently into a drawstring bag she’d readied the day before. It contained sterile syringes and a memory card, on to which she’d burnt full details of a patient’s original DNA, along with details of the modifications being made.

Techniques for reversing DNA alterations had advanced significantly since Charlie first started working for Mango, and the card contained a set of files that could be loaded into the DNA printer at any major hospital to create a safe reversal treatment.

‘I’m heading out,’ Charlie yelled as she exited the shelter and hid the door with the rug.

She got no answer. Ed was in the kitchen at his laptop, wearing headphones. He didn’t even notice when Charlie peeked in to check that he was doing schoolwork rather than playing a game or chatting to his home-schooled pals.

Harry had gone out to the polytunnels behind the house, tending the fruit and veggies before it got too hot. Since Harry wouldn’t be leaving home, Charlie took his Porsche for the first part of the journey into Vegas.