Lukas’s expression hadn’t changed. Abby, next to him on the stage, glanced at him in amazement. Max tried not to show any emotion because T6 was watching him. It was hard. He was having to change how he thought about Lukas in almost every respect.

– Trouble was, Lukas knew his own gang wouldn’t take kindly to him having contact with the police. So he couldn’t go back home. But by that point he was on the radar of the British security services. We spread our net wide. Lukas was orphaned. Smart. Skilled. Just the type we were looking for. I knew from the moment he arrived at Valley House that he’d make it through selection. The rest of you, you want to understand why Lukas was so keen to succeed? Now you know. The alternative was going back to Compton. And that was no alternative at all. Lukas, I know you can’t talk at the moment and I don’t know what you’re thinking. But I do know this: you’re a match for these terrorists.

Hector paused. Max felt his pulse rate increase. The Chinese girl was looking directly at him from across the room, suspicion in her eyes. Max looked away as Hector continued.

– Abby. You’ve been a fighter for as long as you can remember, right? You’ve had to be. Can’t have been easy, being born in prison. Especially a tough, sectarian prison in Northern Ireland. Abby’s mum was doing time for murder. She was pregnant with Abby when the sentence started and Abby was a prison child for the first few years of her life. After that, she went to live with her grandmother. Not easy, is it, Abby, fighting off the other kids, who victimise you because your mum’s a murderer? You’ve got a police record as long as your arm. Hardly surprising, when you have to fight just to be able to walk to school. Most employers would take a dim view of a record like that. Not us. We had our sights on you even before your grandmother died, Abby. You’re clever and fierce and independent. Like Lukas, it was obvious you’d make it through selection the moment you arrived at Valley House. You had the swagger. And I know something else. The people taking over this school are just bullies. Sure, they’re bullies with guns and explosives, but they’re bullies all the same. You’ve already shown that you can deal with people like that.

Abby was staring into the middle distance. Max had no way of telling what effect Hector’s words were having on her.