‘Leave it,’ Blue repeated and carried on walking. The others could do nothing but follow, glancing back over their shoulders at the mother just standing there. Even when they had left her well behind Mick felt a sort of prickle in the back of his neck. He knew she was still there behind him and one thing he’d learnt in the last year was that you never turned your back on a grown-up. It just felt wrong, to leave her there. It was bad luck.

They saw two more grown-ups in the same poses and each time Blue made them hurry past.

‘If they ain’t attacking us we ain’t attacking them. Waste of time.’

Mick was itching, though. He wanted to lash out at something. Wanted to hit something. He carried a big wooden club and had a long knife at his belt. Sometimes the only thing that made him feel OK was to break something. Shake things up.

And then, when they arrived at the Promithios site, he realized he was going to get the chance.

The place was crawling with grown-ups.

Chapter 35

35

Their route had taken them to the east of the airport into an area of small businesses, warehouses and factories. There were several car repairers mixed up with companies that had made all sorts of things – windows, swimming-pool pumps, kitchen cabinets, cardboard boxes – as well as places that had serviced the airport and airlines, like caterers and cleaners. Promithios Biomedical was on a slightly grander and more modern complex called a ‘Corporate Park’, which seemed to be mostly made up of big, ugly, windowless buildings clad in metal and concrete. It sat behind a black metal fence, with a gatehouse and big sliding gates, and that’s where the grown-ups were clustered. Maybe twenty of them, out in the sun, scrabbling like mad dogs to get past the fence and inside.

As soon as he saw them, Blue ordered the war party to stop, and they hunkered down behind some parked cars.

‘We could find another way in,’ said Einstein. ‘I mean, we’re going to have to climb over the fence, whatever.’

‘Yeah,’ said Blue. ‘But if we’re going to shift the gear out we’ll need to get rid of that lot. I don’t want to be worrying about them all the time we’re inside.’

‘You’re sure it’s safe to attack them?’ asked Einstein.

‘Course it’s not safe,’ Blue scoffed. ‘But it’s still the best bet. I’d feel bare happy if we could kick them off the bus. Then we could try and get the gates open; gonna be easier all round if we do that.’

‘They don’t look too handy,’ said Mick. ‘They’re a pretty sick bunch.’