Couldn’t go down there in the light either. Had to do it at night when he could think straight and there were more dark places to hide. If he left it too late, though, they’d all go into the minerals gallery and close the doors. He had maybe a half-hour window of opportunity. At dusk, when the light drained away and they all came strolling back from wherever they’d been working. They would gather in the main hall then move up to the gallery. He had to get one of them when they were on the move, defences down, looking forward to their beds.

Or in the toilet.

Yes. That was a possibility.

During the day the kids used some toilets Justin had had built outside. They’d been nicknamed the Dumper. Justin was very proud of his Dumper. The nerdy jerk. All their waste was collected in big stinky bins and emptied on to a midden, a great dunghill they’d started in some nearby gardens. They’d all sort of got used to the smell from the Dumper. But at night the kids couldn’t risk going outside and used some toilets just off the main hall instead, flushing them with grey waste water from their cooking and washing.

Maybe that was the best place to ambush one of them?

Yes. Time to move. Time to show Boney-M that he wasn’t useless.

Time to start his collection.

Chapter 24

24

‘I’m supposed to be the head of security,’ said Robbie. ‘I can’t be stuck here. I’m useless. I could have helped the other night. But my leg …’

‘It’s all right,’ said Maeve, ‘we’re gonna sort that out,’ and she stuck a thermometer in his mouth.

‘Can you really fix it?’ Robbie asked, his words slightly muffled by the thermometer.

‘I can try,’ said Maeve. ‘It’s still sore, yeah?’

‘You could say that.’

They were in a small meeting room at the front of the museum, close to the minerals gallery, that the kids had set up as a sick-bay. Robbie was lying on a bed, covered by a sheet. Maeve was trying not to think too much about what she might find when they lifted that sheet.

‘I was helping Brooke,’ said Robbie. ‘Her and some friends of hers. Guy called DogNut, girl called Courtney and two other dudes, Felix and Marco …’

Robbie stopped and Maeve wiped some sweat off his forehead with a damp cloth. This was obviously a bad memory for him, but he needed to get it out, so Maeve let him talk.

‘We were escorting them to the Tower of London,’ he went on. ‘But we were ambushed.’

‘I know all about it,’ said Maeve. ‘I was there. Well, only after you’d got away. Brooke told me what happened.’