“So I’m getting this job?”

“What makes you think there is a job?”

“Come on,” Bone said. “I’m looking at it now. It’s all over the net.” He had to keep his voice level, not let his eagerness take hold too much. Whenever he thought about Longford some of his caution lifted and emotions took hold. He had to be careful that didn’t show through.

No one knew where he was from. Not even Jordan.

“Why are you so interested?” she asked.

“Our esteemed military ancestors infected the population with some weird virus called Kovo,” he said. “It drove them mad. The authorities gassed them, buried the truth, flooded the valley. And there were rumours of ‘strange creatures in the hills’.”

He heard Jordan’s slight intake of breath. Sometimes he felt almost sorry for her, because he knew how much she would love to get her hands on a live Kin. That’s what her department was for, and why he worked for them. It was also why he kept his biggest secret to himself. The few times he’d found a real live Kin on an assignment, he had let it go. He sometimes fed a few old relics through to Jordan, just so that she didn’t think he was totally useless, but by working for the government outfit committed to discovering the truth about the Kin, he was best placed to keep their existence a secret. He was their buffer between maintained secrecy and discovery.

He knew what their discovery would mean. Persecution. Vivisection. Annihilation.

He did this for himself and for his father, and now he had a chance to return home.

“You think they might really have been there?” she asked, as open and candid as he’d ever heard her. He didn’t reply. Silence was the great prompter, even for someone like Jordan who played chess in every conversation she had. It took maybe thirty seconds.

“Okay,” she said. “It’s yours. I’ll email you the details. I doubt there’ll be much to find, but if there are any relics there, they’ll need retrieving. Usual protocol—you’re on point, and anything needs attending to, you report back to me through the usual channels.”

“Why don’t I just text you?” he said, smiling. He thought perhaps he heard a soft chuckle on the other end of the phone. He’d met Jordan a dozen times, had seen her dedication to her work, and he wondered whether she sometimes sat alone in a darkened hotel room surfing sites similar to those he looked at. It made him sad to think that was the case. He was lonely enough for everyone.

“Just keep your head down, Bone,” she said, “and get there fast. The gawkers and treasure hunters will be there soon.”

“I’ll be there sooner.”

“Okay, good. Stay in the shadows.”

“Sure. Have a nice evening.”