‘As far as I can work it out, it’s like they can communicate with each other without talking. They don’t even have to be in the same room. You know, a bit like using a mobile phone.’ Blue paused, made a face. Laughed at himself. ‘Not that I ever really understood how they worked. Like TV and Wi-Fi and that, messages through the air, waves and rays and particles and all stuff we did at school. I never really got my head round it. Probably because I wasn’t listening.’

‘But you do still have to actually talk into a phone,’ said Einstein. ‘It’s not magic. Quite honestly it sounds ridiculous, what you’re saying.’

‘Yeah, don’t it?’ said Blue. ‘I ain’t no scientist. I don’t know how they do it. It’s not like talking, but they can send and receive messages somehow. It’s something to do with the disease.’

‘No,’ said Einstein. ‘It’s impossible. Human beings can’t suddenly develop telepathy.’

‘Well, this lot have, so get used to it, science-boy. They developed it in the womb.’

‘It’s just not possible.’

‘Well, maybe they’re not human then.’

‘They’re disabled,’ said Einstein. ‘But they’re still human.’

‘I wouldn’t call them disabled,’ said Blue. ‘They can do a whole mess of stuff that we can’t. They’re different. Not like any disabled kids I knew. It’s the disease.’

The lab lit up and soon after there was a crash of thunder. The rain was noisy against the glass roof. Blue and Maxie were sitting with Einstein. It had still been light outside when they’d come over to the orange zone, but the storm had quickly brought on the dark. Einstein had had to find some candles as the generator had been turned off for the night. They were the last three here and soon they’d have to go back through to the main building and shut this area down.

Einstein got up and started pacing about. He was behaving like someone who’d been given some bad news that they didn’t want to accept.

‘Disease doesn’t give us special powers,’ he insisted. ‘It’s not like Spider-Man. Disease takes things away.’

‘What about kids with autism?’ said Maxie. ‘You know, like the ones who can do amazing things – I don’t know, maths and that. I saw this documentary about a kid who could just look at a building and then draw it exactly from memory.’

‘That’s just because some of the noise is taken out; some parts of their brains are wired, like, wrong, so other parts develop,’ said Einstein. ‘But doing hard sums is not a superpower, unless I missed that comic. Autistic kids may be different to us, but they’re still human. Disease destroys us. Simple as that.’

‘What about bacteria then?’ said Maxie.

‘What about it?’