‘You’re fine,’ he soothed. ‘You’ve done really well …’

‘Don’t … patronize … me,’ Thea spluttered.

‘See? And you can still be really rude. So you must be fine.’

They sat there for a while. It would have been a beautiful view if it hadn’t been for the sleet blurring the windows and the way the wind growled and raged outside. Downstairs, tucked away behind the thick stone walls, there was protection from it but up here they were vulnerable. There was just glass between them and it, old glass at that. Up close she could make out some of the pictures in the stained glass: one saint in a long grey robe bending to pat a dog, or sheep, or possibly a small horse – it was hard to tell. In the sunshine it would have been kaleidoscope-pretty. Right now though, it seemed that at any moment, the whole thing would shatter, the cracks speeding across the panes and then there would be a rush of air and sleet as the glass imploded over them, wicked shards aiming straight for their eyes.

‘Let’s go.’ She took another deep breath.

‘Tea. Everyone feels better after tea. With sugar.’

Ethan set about boiling the kettle and Thea crumpled into the chair by the window, trying to concentrate on her breathing.

‘I know!’ Ethan knelt to look in the lower cupboards, his knees cracking softly as he did so. Action Ken knees, Thea thought.

‘I knew that guard would have some!’ He waved a bottle. ‘Here. Even better!’

He shoved a glass into her hand, filled with an amber-coloured liquid.

‘Whisky. Just the thing. One glass, then we carry on looking. Okay?’

He raised his glass.

‘Okay,’ said Thea, swilling the whisky round and round, making a small orange whirlpool.

‘To … I don’t know … to Moses Ing!’

Thea raised hers. ‘To Moses Ing, without whom we wouldn’t be in this fucking mess.’

They drank.

And from beyond the door they hadn’t even noticed was there, half hidden behind a tapestry, a small wavery voice could just about be heard.

‘Hello?’

They froze.

‘Hello? Did you call me? Moses? Anybody there? Hello?’

Chapter 27

Moses Ing. The man behind it all, near-mythical, a tech Titan, a behemoth of the internet, the man who made Morpheus … a man they had very clearly seen waving from the walkway next to Delores dressed in his chinos and deck shoes.

‘He can’t be in there!’ Thea whispered.

Ethan shrugged helplessly.

‘We saw him with Delores!’ she added.

He downed the rest of his whisky.

‘Did we?’

‘Yes! You were there. Delores introduced him and he waved at everyone and …’ Her brain caught up. ‘Oh.’

‘Well, one of them isn’t the real Moses Ing,’ he said. ‘Want to find out which one?’