There was no fire here, she realized. They had been spared that, at least. But there was a smell of burning, a pall of smoke rising from somewhere to the east. There was no sign of the emergency services. No police, no fire brigade — nobody save for the lone police constable, running with the rest of them, trying to raise her station on her lapel radio.

And now an immense groan emanated from the falling lab building. Jane looked back. There was a crack like snapping bone, and the building exploded, lengthways, its upper levels hurling themselves forward as if trying to escape the betraying ground. But they fell, inexorably, fragmenting as they went.

The building lost coherence and collapsed, in a cloud of billowing dust. There was a fresh explosion, a sharp, almost beautiful flower of flame, at the base of the building.

The woman, still trapped under her tree, was no longer moving She was unconscious but probably still alive, Jane thought But how could they help her?

“We have to keep going,” said Henry. “When these cars start going up, there’ll be a chain reaction.”

Jane looked down at the woman. “The first we are leaving to die.”

“She won’t be the last,” Henry said grimly. “Listen, I have to go with that cop.”

That startled her, although she should have anticipated this.

His face was full of doubt and anguish. “I need to get to the authorities, somehow. Yes. That’s what I have to do. She’s my best bet—”

“No. We have to reach Jack.” She looked into his face. “You have to help me.”

His expression was complex, unreadable. “I have to do this.”

“Why?”

“Because they have to evacuate the city. And then I have to tell what I know. To someone who can do something about it, on a global scale.”

“Lake what?”

“Like find the source of this.”

She thought that over. “You mean the Moon?”

He peered up at the sky, as if seeking the Moon, then looked at her. “Listen to me,” he said. “We saw what happened to Venus. Maybe this is all somehow linked. And right now we don’t have any way to stop it, here on Earth. No way to stop it, until it goes all the way to its conclusion.”

That chilled her, more than she would have believed possible, after what she’d already gone through, what she still had to face. But the most important thing, the central realization, was unchanged.

He’s not going to come with me.

She felt more frightened than ever.

When she was with Henry, she felt as if she could do anything, go anywhere. Live forever. My head knows we’re in trouble, but my body needs educating. Like a dumb old dog It doesn’t understand.

But I barely know him. Am I investing too much, in a relationship that barely got started? Could I have expected anything more?