‘Stay with me,’ she bellowed at Boggle and Andy, and she squeezed through the gap in the doors, her katana held out in front of her. As she came out, blinded by the bright light, she saw a movement, swatted pathetically with the blade, aware that she was off balance and helpless. She slipped and slid down to the ground. Even more useless. She swiped desperately at the pair of legs she saw in front of her and they jumped back out of her way.

‘Maxie! Stop it!’

She blinked, shielding her eyes, slowly getting used to the light. Aware that there was more than one person out here. And the person she had nearly hit was …

‘Blue?’

She struggled to get up from her undignified position, sprawled on her arse half out of the door. Blue gave her a hand, pulled her up with his strong, muscled arm.

She looked around. Coming up the slope were several kids pushing trolleys. No sign of Paul.

‘Did you see him?’

‘Who?’

‘A tall boy, dressed all in black, carrying a knife.’

‘Nobody came out except you.’

Maxie looked at Blue now. Felt hot tears spring into her eyes. He was back.

‘You OK, Max? What’s going on?’ He put his arms round her.

Paul must still be in the museum. He hadn’t come out through the doors at all. They’d have to find him …

Later. Right now all she wanted was to hold on to Blue.

‘It’s a long story,’ she said into his neck, her voice wobbly.

‘I’ve got time.’

Chapter 85

85

‘Look, see, I can walk. It’s not so bad.’ Robbie was half hopping, half limping around the room. Maeve sat on one of the beds, watching him, unimpressed.

‘You need to rest your leg, Robbie,’ she said. ‘It’s too early to be walking around on it. You’ll pull out all the stitches.’

‘Nah, it’s fine. Million times better. Hardly hurts at all any more. Well … It’s still sore, obviously, but it don’t burn at all. The stitches are holding up fine. The antibiotics have kicked in. You fixed me up. You’re a genius.’

‘Yeah, but if you open the wound then it’ll really hurt some. Trust me, Robbie. Plus, you’ll let infection back in. What’s the big hurry anyway?’

‘I want to come with you.’

‘You what?’ Maeve straightened up, looked hard at him, trying to work out if he was teasing her.

‘I know you’re planning to leave, Maeve,’ said Robbie, and he sounded genuine. ‘I know you’ve been asking around, seeing if anyone wants to go with you. Well, you never asked me.’

‘That’s because you couldn’t come, Robbie, because of your wound. You know that. It’s nothing personal.’

‘Yeah, well, I’m going to come with you. Simple as that.’