‘My guess is that she knew perfectly well she’d been dreamhacked into sleepwalking but just didn’t want to tell me, so she slipped away somewhere safe. But I can’t think where that would be. I honestly don’t know her well enough.’

‘The question is, if Sidney is homed to O’s roof, then will he return to where he came from?’

‘Probably. She also has these special birds that never go out . . . or I’ve never seen them go, anyway. We can check if any of them are missing. Maybe she’s already sent a message back to Sidney’s point of origin.’

I’m getting excited. I can do something, and I can do it while I’m awake!

‘We must be able to track them,’ Roman says. ‘Let me think how to do it.’

‘Don’t tell Donato. Please. He’ll ruin it. He hates me.’

‘He doesn’t hate you. He just—’

‘Yeah, he hates me.’

‘He takes a while to warm up to people. But he doesn’t hate you. He’s a professional.’

‘Please don’t bring him in.’

‘All right. For now. I was just talking to my sister. She and my brother-in-law both work as bike messengers. They use those hybrid cycles that can go just about anywhere. We’ll need to track the birds digitally and then be able to send out scouts to check out the details at their landing points. I wonder what the range on those birds is?’ It’s big, but I don’t want to tell him that because it might discourage him. I’ll try anything at this point. And Sidney’s message takes on a new significance:

Intrusions have been traced. They have recordings and are reverse-engineering. If intruders identified, criminal charges could be forthcoming. Pls advise.

When I first read this, I took the ‘intrusions’ to be something to do with O’s work as a security contractor. But what if it’s to do with dreamhacking? What are the ‘intrusions’? Is it me, intruding on the Dream City? Is it Daphne, intruding on sleepers? Or is it the Creeper? O got that message and then we went down to Dorking and she changed something in Daphne’s therapy schedule. Whoever sent the message is involved in all this mess, and O knew very well when I told her about Daphne killing Bernard that it was real.

The question is, was O involved somehow in the killings – or is she also a target?

Does everybody think I’m a muppet and is this why O doesn’t tell me anything? Feed the pigeons, make the tea, don’t worry your silly head sort of thing?

Well, I’m not a muppet. I’d like to see Roman and Donato cope with crippling narcolepsy, extreme hair loss and demented old-lady murderers all at the same time.

Big sky

Big sky