Nobody remembered that at the beginning he’d been as scared as all the rest, how he’d taken over the crew because no one else wanted the job. He’d been a good leader, though. Had grown into it. He knew his territory, his ends. Knew where was safe, where not to go, where to find food, where there were places of safety. Knew how to survive. Leaving Morrisons and the old familiarity of Holloway had been tough. And ever since then he’d been making it up as he went along. Trying to give the impression he was on top of things. Trying to pretend he had some idea what he was doing.

And now this. Down here in the dark in this strange place. He had no previous experience of anything like this. Didn’t know how to go ahead. Hated the unknown. They’d blundered into a whole heap of weird voodoo.

But there was something else.

He felt alone in a way he hadn’t known for a long while. He’d got used to Big Mick being right next to him, whatever happened, wherever they were. Why had he let Mick stay up top? Should have been one of the others. He felt naked and unprotected.

And then there was Maxie.

God, he wished she was here. She had a cool head on her. He needed that support. Mad to think she’d been so close to him all that time. Just down the road, but they’d never spoken. Never even met. And now it had all happened so quickly. He’d found her and, next thing he knew, here he was, alone and missing her. If he could only get this done he could get back to her.

But without her here he had to do it all by himself.

None of this lot were much use. Einstein didn’t have a clue about this sort of thing. OK, so Achilleus knew how to handle himself all right, but he kept well clear when it came to making decisions. That left Ollie. He was smart. Not a leader, but reliable. And Blue was going to need all the help he could get. He just had to ask for it in a way that didn’t show his hand.

The door through to the warehouse was padlocked shut. A combination lock. You had to put in a code. The door was solid. Couldn’t be forced. They had to figure out the code or go back and find another way in.

And did they even want to get in? What was in there? Who had left that crazy-arsed message on the wall?

‘There’s another one here,’ said Ollie, who’d been studying the lock, and he pointed out some more lettering, low down on the door. Much smaller writing to the other message. Neat, spidery, spelled properly. It had obviously been written by someone else.

‘What’s it say?’ Blue asked.