She returned to Adam and prised his suit open, starting with his helmet. “Help me lift him out if this,” she said to the team standing around her, and she waited while they deactivated and stepped out of their own suits.

Between the six of them, they were able to carefully lift the man’s body while Franc pulled the damaged suit out from under him then laid him back on the lounge. Mitzi went to his head first. A sinking feeling grew in her chest when she saw the trickle of blood that ran from the back of his skull and down his neck. She checked for a pulse and smiled when she found it. Weak, but that’s better than not having one at all.

“There should be some bottled water in the fridge or one of the storage cupboards,” she said. “And a first-aid kit. Someone get me those and some cloths.”

Skye, Franc, and Ellen, apparently relieved to have something to do, spread out at once and started pulling open cupboard doors. Mir retreated to a dark corner, where she huddled in one of the chairs, and Eoin, after staring at Adam’s still face for a moment, sat in the chair opposite and pulled the book out of a pocket.

“Seriously?” Mitzi asked, incredulous, as he opened it to a dog-eared page. She shook her head. “You know what? I’m not even mad. Stick to your principles.”

Franc appeared at Mitzi’s side with a bottle of water and a small bundle of washcloths. Mitzi cracked the bottle’s lid off, wet one of the cloths, and began dabbing at the back of Adam’s head. A moment later, Skye returned with the first-aid kit.

“Cut his shirt off,” Mitzi said, feeling her stomach flip over at how quickly the washcloth turned pink. “See if he has any broken ribs.”

The room was silent as Skye pulled a pair of scissors out of the kit and started cutting. Mitzi threw aside the first washcloth and wet a second one, which she used to blot at Adam’s face. He stirred, murmuring deep in his throat.

“I don’t think anything’s broken,” Skye said. “There might be fractures, though. He’s bruised pretty badly.”

Mitzi glanced at Adam’s chest and nodded. Dark discolouration was growing across the skin, but there were no indents or plumes of red that could indicate broken ribs. “Could be worse. I’m going to say we’re not leaving this room for a bit. See if you can find more water and some food, and rest up as much as you can.”

Skye stayed beside Mitzi, but Franc and Ellen moved off to fetch supplies from the cupboards. Someone said something that was too faint for Mitzi to hear, and she craned her neck to see Mir in the corner of the room, curled up so that her knees were resting under her chin as her dark eyes glared at the back of Adam’s chair.

“What was that?”

“Why?” Mir repeated, a little more loudly. “Why are we wasting time with him?”