Maxie smiled. ‘I know it wasn’t you.’

‘Do you think it was Paul Channing?’ asked Wiki.

‘I don’t know,’ said Maxie. ‘What do you think? You saw him last. Do you think he could do something like that?’

Wiki thought about this for a long time, chewing his lip. Then he had a whispered and muttered conversation with Jibber-jabber that turned into a bit of an argument.

‘I know lots of things,’ said Wiki in the end. ‘I know the answers to almost any questions you can ask me about science and facts, and the world, and the Guinness Book of Records, things like that. But I can’t answer your question.’

‘Neither can I,’ said Jibber-jabber.

Chapter 48

48

Why was he carrying a shoe? He looked at his feet. He had his own trainers on. So whose shoe was this? It was important. He remembered that. It was important he didn’t drop the shoe.

Where was Jake?

He looked around. Somehow he’d left his home and was on another planet. A huge, empty, alien space. Never known anything like it. The emptiness went on forever. He couldn’t really remember how he’d got here. He’d been trying to get back. Back to his friends at the big glass building. He’d got lost. Way lost. And now he was here.

He flopped down to his knees. God, he was tired. Way off in the distance he could see some white birds. They were huge, gleaming in the sun. Must be the biggest birds he’d ever seen. The rest was emptiness. The sky over him. No end to it.

Find Jake.

His clothes were caked with blood. It was drying, but there was more running down his neck where …

Yes. Where that grown-up had cut him with the broken glass. He must have lost a lot of blood. He was very thirsty. It hurt to swallow.

And they’d taken Jake. Where? He’d lost them.

They’d dragged Jake away and he’d tried to follow. Found he couldn’t walk very well. His balance was shot. He’d stumbled after the grown-ups, but they were quicker. Got out through a big hole in the fence.

So that’s how the bastards had got in.

He remembered them pulling Jake through it. How he’d tried to resist. Still alive. Good boy. Good old Jake. And his foot caught in the wire. They yanked hard and his trainer came off. Mick almost caught up. Then paused to pick up the trainer. Jake would need it, wouldn’t he? To get back.

After that.

He remembered crossing a road, going through trees and bushes into fields, a lake; one moment he’d been among buildings and then … somehow he was in the countryside again. Countryside. He’d wandered around in circles. Couldn’t find the grown-ups, couldn’t find Jake, couldn’t find his way back.