“I wish Arran was here,” Freak said quietly into her ear.

“Yeah,” said Maxie. “Now, I’d better go, or I’ll be left behind.”

Freak watched her jog over to the others and catch up with the last of them as they went down into St. James’s Park.

He prayed they’d all come back.

Jester slapped Blue on the back. “You see?” he said. “This is where you belong, mate, at the head of an army. Not back in the palace doing all the boring crap. Watching vegetables grow. You’re a born general.”

“Maybe.”

There was a lake running the length of the park. The water level had dropped, but it still contained a decent amount.

“Perfect for irrigating crops,” Jester explained. “Did you know? During the Second World War most of the parkland in London was turned over to allotments. There’s loads of space to grow stuff, easily enough to support the kids that are left. But you have to be secure or it won’t happen. Without security you’re reduced to scavenging, like you used to do, and like these squatters here have been doing.”

“Who are they exactly?” asked Achilleus.

“They turned up a couple of months ago,” said Jester. “Far as we know, they’d been wandering around London, taking stuff as they went. First thing they did when they got here was dig up all the crops we’d planted and eat them. If we try to go near and replant, they attack us. They don’t want anything to do with us. I mean, they’ve tried to grow new crops, but they don’t know what they’re doing.”

“They got someone in charge?” Blue asked.

“He’s called John.”

“John what?”

“Just John.”

“Just John?”

“Yes. Just John.”

“Well, this guy, Just John, what’s he like?”

“He’s hard to reason with,” said Jester. “Harder even than you, Blue, if you can imagine.”

“He’ll reason with this,” said Achilleus, slapping his sledgehammer handle into the palm of his hand.

“No fighting if we can avoid it,” said Blue.

“Yeah, right.”

The first drops of rain started to fall.

“God’s policeman,” said Jester.

“Say what?”

“The police always used to pray for rain before any big demonstration, because people wouldn’t turn up. Nobody wants to riot in the streets if it’s pouring. Who’s going to want to fight in this?”

“Let’s hope,” said Blue.

Out on the right flank, Maxie put her hoodie up. It would keep some of the rain off, and her new leather jacket was reasonably waterproof. She glanced over at the main body of kids. Ollie had left his position at the back and was making his way to the front. She wondered if everything was all right. She watched as Ollie approached Achilleus and said something. The two of them then broke away to the side to talk to each other in private.