With a swift motion, Delores flicked her hair over one shoulder, her long wool coat flapping in the breeze, and straightened up, holding out a manicured hand to Thea.

‘Harriet will take you inside,’ she said.

Kyle stopped and put Moses’s feet down. ‘No.’

‘I’m sorry?’ Delores said politely but in such a tone to suggest she wasn’t sorry at all.

‘Thea is to be taken straight to the boat. I’ve got orders to personally make sure she gets there. As soon as possible. I’m afraid you are no longer in charge, Ms Maxwell.’

Again that something unspoken between them, a weird emphasis on the word boat, which made Thea’s skin prickle. She was fairly certain that that was not where Kyle had orders to take her.

Delores grabbed Thea’s hand and almost shoved her into Harriet. ‘I may not be in charge any longer, as you say, but I really wouldn’t try disobeying me. It generally doesn’t end well.’

Suddenly she was in a game of piggy-in-the-middle, except, as the piggy, she wasn’t even sure which side she wanted to be on. Kyle, or Delores? Thea scanned around for an escape route but there was nowhere to run, and no hope she could outrun Kyle.

Thea wasn’t sure how it would have ended had not Moses chosen that exact moment to start thrashing in Rory’s weak grip, moaning loudly. Kyle shifted his feet uncertainly, looking at Thea and Delores and then over to where Rory was struggling to hold Moses. Moses flailed out one arm and caught Rory on the nose, who gave a muffled yelp.

Kyle sighed.

Marching back over to the two of them, he grabbed Moses’s arms and, between them, they hauled him inside, his feet dragging uselessly on the ground.

‘Go.’ Delores pushed her, talking to Harriet. ‘Make sure she’s not seen. I have one more thing to check here.’

Before he was whisked inside, Thea was almost sure she saw Moses briefly open one eye and look straight at her.

Chapter 41

Harriet put her finger to her lips.

Thea had been in the Staff Bubble before on her first meeting with Delores. It was a weird mirror of the one that had been used for the clients and the design was identical: same huge central area with the cafeteria and strategically placed seating, a gleaming lift shaft in the middle and wheel-spoke walkways with light coming from the curved glass roof.

Empty. Echoing.

Thea grabbed both of Harriet’s forearms and held on tight. ‘Harriet, you’ve got to help, you—’

But then all the words stuck in Thea’s throat and she clamped her hand over her mouth to try and stop any ragged gulps of air.