‘Well, you can’t. Simple as that.’ Maeve flopped back, leaning against the wall behind the bed. The only other person in the sick-bay was Cameron, who was fast asleep, as usual. The wound in his neck wasn’t too bad, but he’d still lost a lot of blood, and without a proper diet it was going to take him a while to get strong again.

‘Anyway,’ said Maeve, ‘I’m not sure I’m going any more.’

Robbie sat down next to her, sighing with relief. His leg was obviously hurting more than he was letting on.

‘Why not?’ he said, rubbing his thigh. ‘What’s the matter? What’s changed?’

‘It’s what happened to Blue’s lot,’ said Maeve. ‘It was awful. I couldn’t bear it. All the crying. So many kids killed.’

‘But how does that affect you? They weren’t your friends.’

‘There’s still a lot of sickos out there, Robbie. It just reminded me, is all. It’d be too dangerous trying to get out of town. I couldn’t ask anyone to go through that. They don’t want to anyway. Every kid who said they wanted to come with me has backed down now, changed their mind. I need to wait now till I can convince them it’s the right thing to do. Till I’m sure it’d be safe. Once we’re out of London I know it’ll be different, I just know, but it’s getting there that’s …’

‘If you wait you’ll never go,’ Robbie interrupted her. ‘You’ll be stuck here.’

‘Yeah … Maybe … I don’t know.’

In truth, Maeve didn’t know what she wanted to do any more. She was scared to go and scared to stay. It had been three days since Blue had got back. Three very dark, very bleak days, as the local kids learnt what had happened to their friends. And it had also been three very strange days as everyone got used to the newcomers, Skinner and Fish-Face and Trinity.

They’d seen nothing more of Paul. He’d disappeared into the depths of the museum somewhere. Blue had wanted to search the place from top to bottom straight away, but Maxie had persuaded him to rest up first. The trip had taken a lot out of them physically and emotionally and Maxie didn’t want a load of kids to go running around the museum half-cocked. So they’d been talking to Justin and putting together a plan of action so that Paul could be safely flushed out.

‘You don’t have to ask me to come with you,’ said Robbie. ‘I’m volunteering. It’s my choice.’

‘It’s sweet of you, Robbie,’ said Maeve, ‘but you can’t. How can you walk anywhere like that?’

‘Who said anything about walking?’

‘What are you talking about?’