‘You don’t know the exact plan,’ said Justin. ‘Listen, can’t you?’

‘I’m listening. Get on with it.’

‘I would if you didn’t keep interrupting.’

‘Go on then.’

‘Right. We have to work methodically through each part of the museum, starting in the green and blue zones. All the doors through to here and the orange zone will be locked, as well as the doors through to the offices, and library, and the lower level.’

Achilleus stuck his hand up and Justin looked irritated.

‘What?’

‘Does that mean I won’t be able to use the library, sir? I wanted to read the Twilight books. I hear they’re awesome.’

Paddy tittered and Blue looked at Maxie. Achilleus was one of her crew. Not his responsibility.

‘Don’t be a twat, Achilleus,’ she said. ‘The quicker we can get done here, the better.’

In reply Achilleus stretched out his arms and gave a big, theatrical yawn.

‘Wake me up when it’s over,’ he said and slumped in his chair, to the delight of Paddy, who copied him.

Justin pressed on. ‘Then we widen the search to the red and orange zones. If we still haven’t found him we’ll go up on to the roof and even check the gardens. Basically we’re going to keep looking until we find where he’s hiding.’

‘Maybe he’s disappeared up his own arse,’ Achilleus whispered, loud enough for everyone to hear him. Justin didn’t rise to the bait.

‘Anybody not in a search party,’ he said, ‘will be locked in the minerals gallery for safety. As the museum is so big, there’s a danger that Paul might be able to move from hiding place to hiding place, so you’ve been split up into six groups. That way you can spread out. All six search parties will work at the same time, and as each gallery is cleared it’ll be locked down. Each search party will be controlled by a squad leader, and after this talk I want to keep the squad leaders here for a final briefing.’

‘Roger wilco,’ said Achilleus and Justin took a deep breath, trying not to lose his temper.

‘The squad leaders are: Blue, team one; Achilleus, you’re team two; Boggle, team three; Ollie is team four; and Jackson, team five. Lewis, you’re team six.’

Justin went on to explain the plan in detail, but Maxie had stopped listening. She knew what the idea was after all. Justin had wanted her to lead a team, but she’d refused and quietly explained that from now on she and Blue were always going to stick together.

She wished it was over, that Paul was gone and the museum was safe. She wished she could sleep at night and not be poisoned with worry. It felt a lot better having Blue around, and sharing problems made them seem smaller, but she longed for life to be boring again.