As they went out on to the balcony outside the minerals gallery, Achilleus took in the view of the central hall. Light streamed in through two rows of windows on either side of the great arched roof and he could appreciate just how huge and ornate the place was, like a cathedral.

There were kids busy below, hauling bodies across the tiled floor towards the main doors.

‘You find any more live ones?’ Achilleus asked Brooke.

‘I don’t know. Don’t think so. I ain’t been involved in that.’

‘I shoulda been,’ said Achilleus.

‘Maxie said to let you sleep. She said you’d be more use to us fit and well and rested up.’

‘Yeah. But I sure do love to whack a grown-up in the morning.’

Halfway down the main stairs they met Maeve coming up. She was a serious-looking girl whose parents had both been doctors. She’d acted as a doctor herself for Achilleus and the other kids when they were living in Waitrose.

‘I was just coming to find you,’ she said when she saw Brooke. ‘I wanted to have a look at the labs you’ve got here and somebody said you were heading off that way. I’m Maeve, by the way.’ She smiled at Brooke, who smiled back.

‘Yeah, we’re off to see the docs,’ said Brooke. ‘Join the party.’

The two girls fell into conversation as they carried on. Achilleus and Paddy dropped back and sauntered along behind them.

‘Can we do some training today?’ Paddy asked.

‘Nope.’

‘Oh, come on, Achilleus. The deal was I’d carry your gear if you taught me how to fight.’

‘You heard the girl, didn’t you?’ said Achilleus. ‘She said I need to rest up. Right now I feel like someone’s poured burning acid in my ear. I feel, like, dizzy and that. There was a guy, name of Arran, used to be our, like, leader sort of thing. Got a bite. Got infected. Went nuts. You don’t want that to happen to me now, do you, caddie?’

‘No.’

‘We’ll take our time, yeah. Ain’t no hurry. I try to fight you now, you’re liable to kill me.’

‘Yeah, but you said …’

‘Padawan!’ Achilleus cut him off. ‘Are you carrying any gear right now?’

‘No.’

‘OK. So I ain’t doing any training then.’

They walked past the entrance to the dinosaur gallery and Achilleus caught a glimpse of Maxie organizing a work party.

He nodded to her.

She nodded back at him and gave him a look that said she could do without having to deal with this right now. She looked tired and harassed. Not a very nice job, getting rid of dead bodies. The smell was pretty chronic. Live grown-ups smelt bad enough; dead ones were another matter entirely.