Blue was hacked off. They’d spent all morning searching and found nothing. Not even a trace of where Paul might have been hiding out. He’d been hoping they’d find him quickly and get it over with, but it was clear that wasn’t going to happen. The tension of the first couple of hours had slowly drained away and changed to boredom as they trudged round the galleries, checking every cabinet, every cupboard, every door, every dark corner. And the more bored they got, the less care they took, until they were poking around aimlessly and half the kids were mucking about and playing stupid games.

The more they searched, the more Blue became aware of just how huge the museum was, how many places there were to hide. He remembered the first few days they’d been here, flushing the grown-ups out of the lower level. The time that had taken. And it wasn’t just the galleries they had to search; there were all the areas that hadn’t been open to the public – the offices and back rooms, the storage areas …

It was going to take them ages and, no matter how careful they were, Paul could easily just keep moving around and stay one jump ahead. He had keys and they could hardly change all the locks. They could be at it for days, weeks, months. All Blue really wanted was to sit on his arse and spend some time with Maxie, just jamming.

They’d taken a break in the middle of the day for some lunch – a thin, watery soup with tiny scraps of vegetable in it. And now, still hungry, always hungry, they were chilling in the minerals gallery before setting off to search the next section of the museum. Stretching the minutes out, making the most of it until Justin came in and told them it was time to get going again.

Blue was sitting on the floor with his back against the wall, Maxie slumped next to him, playing with the little puppy that used to belong to Joel. Joel. He’d almost forgotten the guy. Poor little kid. He’d been killed by diseased apes that had escaped from the zoo. Too many memories. They crept up on you when you were like this, your guard down. Maybe, after all, it was better to keep busy and not leave yourself too much time to think.

‘I know it was our plan,’ he said, ‘but I don’t reckon it’s gonna work. I reckon we ought to just set some kind of trap for him. Stake the place out and wait for him to make his move.’

‘What?’ said Maxie. ‘Tie some little kid to a pole and wait for him?’

‘Yeah.’ Blue gave a humourless little laugh. ‘Something like that.’

‘Seriously, Blue, what other way is there?’ Maxie wasn’t even looking at him. Too interested in the puppy.

‘Can I talk to you?’