Ed was trembling and Harry feared one of his panic attacks, or, worse, a full-on fit.

‘Run back to the house, go down into the shelter and don’t come out until one of us tells you to,’ Harry said.

Ed was terrified of being left alone after the Care4Kids abandonment. He started rocking from side to side as Vern came out of the garage, fixing an ammo belt, then passing another to Harry.

‘Can you come down to the gate with me?’ Vern asked Harry. ‘You look scarier than I do.’

‘Sure,’ Harry said, still wondering how to deal with Ed.

Telling him not to panic would have the opposite effect. But Ed could be distracted if you gave him a task.

‘This is important,’ Harry told Ed. ‘Run back to our house, then go around very quickly. Take your laptop and any other expensive things that you can carry. Then take them into the shelter and guard them. You’re a guard, OK? Your job is really important.’

Ed nodded excitedly.

‘I know you’ll do a good job,’ Harry said.

Ed rushed out of the door, and Vern smiled and handed Harry an ammo belt.

‘You’ve got a knack with that boy,’ Vern complimented as Rosie ran to the top of the house. ‘Give a man responsibility to stop the panic. Learned the same trick on survival training in the air force.’

Ed had reached the other house when Harry and Vern stepped out into midday heat.

‘I grabbed a few of your girlfriend’s homemade grenades,’ Vern said, handing a pair to Harry. ‘I made wire clips so they can hook on your belt.’

60 TERATOMA TUMORS

Harry felt like a cowboy, striding the desert in his flak vest and assault rifle. He thought about the contrast with the skinny English kid who’d landed in Las Vegas eight years earlier and, like always, wondered if his mum would approve of what he was about to do.

The two dust plumes from the pickups were close. The properties weren’t fenced in, but the ground leading up from the highway was steep and bouldered. Even a powerful 4×4 would have to use the dirt road, and Vern had built a hefty steel gate between two boulders a hundred and fifty yards from the houses.

‘If they cut the phone and the CCTV, they must have staked us out,’ Harry said, checking that his gun was loaded as he followed Vern towards the gate.

‘Possibly,’ Vern said. ‘But a wireless signal blocker isn’t hard to make, and there’s a telephone cabinet down by the highway. Just crowbar the door and cut the wires with a pocket knife …’