The girl rolled her eyes. ‘Look, it’s obvious, isn’t it? You five arrived long after the siege began. You must have been sent in by someone on the outside. Your friends are either being watched or they’re …’ She let that sentence trail away. Max wondered if she was thinking about Jack. ‘You’re the only one with a chance of doing anything. I saw you looking at the cables and the explosive devices when I distracted the terrorists by talking to the crying boy. So you must be thinking of disabling them.’

– Don’t admit anything. Let her keep talking.

‘You have to do it quickly,’ the Chinese girl said. ‘I heard two of them talking before you arrived. They’re not going to let the siege go on much longer. They’re waiting for a rescue team to come so they can kill some soldiers as well as us. But if it doesn’t arrive by two o’clock, they’re going to detonate the devices anyway.’

Max looked at his watch. It was half past one. He looked back at the girl. ‘Are you telling me you speak Chechen, on top of everything else?’

‘Russian,’ she replied immediately. ‘They were talking in Russian and I do speak that. And English, Mandarin and Arabic.’

‘How come?’

‘Does it matter? Languages are my thing.’

‘Is there anything you can’t do?’

‘Yes. Cook.’ She didn’t even look like she was joking.

‘What’s your name?’ he asked.

‘Lili. Listen, there are other things you need to know. You noticed the people with guns taped to their arms?’

Max didn’t want to give anything away. ‘Go on,’ he said.

‘There are eight of them. Seven of them are teachers. But one of them is a terrorist.’

‘Which one?’

‘I don’t know.’ She shook her head desperately. ‘I’ve been trying to work it out, but they’re all dressed the same. The teachers’ guns are empty, but his one is loaded.’ She fixed Max with a sincere look. ‘You have to believe me. It’s the terrorists I was deceiving. I’m telling you the truth.’

There was a moment of silence. Then Max heard Abby’s voice in his ear.

– She’s lying. You saw her in here. She’s totally lying.

Max remained expressionless. The next voice he heard was Angel’s.

– You’re going to have to make this call, Max. You’re the one talking to her. Only you can decide. Is she lying or telling the truth? Go with your gut instinct.

He stared at Lili. She was a different person to the one he’d seen in the hall. She seemed smaller. Less aggressive. And frightened.