Melior shook his head. “I won’t do it. I won’t be a part of something that will take innocent lives.”

Razzia laughed. “Told you.”

“Hush,” Lethe said, and Razzia grinned. Valkyrie watched Lethe wrap an arm round Melior’s shoulders. “Richard, I understand. I do. And I don’t hold it against you. You’re a good man. We tried making it easy on you by giving you dastardly villains, but you have morals. That is to be admired. However, I cannot allow your morals to get in the way of our plans.” He looked up, and said loudly, “Mr Lilt.”

Valkyrie turned her head. She watched, upside down, as a group of kids were shoved to the railings around her. She recognised one of the men doing the shoving from his photograph.

“Which one first, Doctor Melior?” Parthenios Lilt called down. The kids looked confused. Scared. Some of them wore Corrival Academy uniforms.

Melior had gone pale. “What are you doing? Let them go. They’re children.”

“But they’re not totally innocent,” Lethe told him. “These are the First Wave. They’re on-board the Abyssinia train, Richard. They harbour dark thoughts. Bad apples to a one. And we will kill them all, every bad apple in the barrel, until you do what we want you to do.”

Some of the kids started to struggle. Two of them were already crying.

“Mr Lilt,” Lethe called, “who is your favourite student?”

Lilt pondered. “I think it would have to be Jenan Ispolin,” he answered.

Lethe clapped. “Jenan Ispolin, Student of the Year! Throw him down first, Mr Lilt.”

Lilt seized a lanky boy who started to panic, but could do nothing as he was tipped over the railing.

“Stop!” Melior shouted. “Stop! I’ll do it!”

Lethe held up a hand, and Lilt pulled Jenan back. The kids were led away. Valkyrie saw Lilt pat Jenan on the shoulder, like it had all been part of an act. She wondered if Jenan believed him.

Melior stood at the slab, and his hands began to glow.

Valkyrie didn’t know what she had expected – beams of light, maybe, or some kind of weird chanting – but all Melior did was stand there with his glowing hands and his eyes closed, and the heart didn’t do much of anything. It just lay there on the table.

Her head pounding, Valkyrie glanced across at Rut and Collup. They looked scared.

Melior opened the second box, and took out a glass globe, about the size of a bowling ball. The Soul Catcher. He lifted it on to the tripod where it settled, snug in its perfectly proportioned recess, and immediately a hundred sigils glowed along the transparent hose leading to Collup’s X.

“Please,” Collup called down. “I’m sorry for all the things I done. Please don’t kill me. I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry, too,” Melior said, and placed his right hand on the Soul Catcher.