‘Sorry about this,’ she said, ‘but I’m going to have to touch it.’

Robbie gave a tight little nod.

Maeve had already washed her hands and put on some surgical gloves so she bent over to get a better look and put her fingers on either side of the wound. She gently pushed. Robbie gasped, thrashed his head from side to side, grinding his teeth.

‘I haven’t dared do that,’ said Samira. ‘I’ve been too scared of hurting him.’

‘It helps that I don’t know you,’ Maeve said to Robbie, and he managed a smile.

‘One way to get to know each other,’ he said. ‘But right now I think you’re one sadistic bastard.’

‘All doctors are,’ said Maeve, peering more closely at the wound. ‘They pretend to be doing it for the good of mankind, but actually they just like to hurt people.’

She gave another prod, pulling the wound wider. Blood bubbled out and Robbie gave a shout that was almost a scream.

‘Who looked at the wound when he first came in?’ Maeve asked Samira.

‘Alexander and Cass,’ she replied. ‘There wasn’t much to see. It didn’t look too serious at the time; they were more worried about his shoulder and the cut on his arm.’

‘OK.’ Maeve sat down and took Robbie’s hand. ‘You know what I think?’

‘What?’

‘I think there’s probably something still in there.’

‘Really?’

‘Yeah. You know what it’s like when you get a splinter? It hurts a lot more than it should for such a small thing, and if you don’t pull it out it can get all gummy and infected?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Well, I think you’ve got something like that in your wound. A bit of metal probably. What we’ve got to do is get it out. The only problem is that it’s going to hurt like hell.’

‘I don’t know how it could hurt any worse than it does now,’ Robbie croaked.

‘Oh, believe me,’ said Maeve, ‘it can hurt a million times worse. But, like a splinter, once it’s out the pain should go away pretty quick. As long as we make sure we fish everything out and nuke the infection.’

‘OK. When shall we do it?’

‘Now,’ said Maeve, letting go of Robbie’s hand and jumping to her feet. ‘There’s no point in waiting any longer. You’ll only get worse.’

‘What do you need?’ said Samira. Her eyes were wide and shining. This was obviously all getting a little too real for her.

‘The strongest painkillers you’ve got, antiseptic, disinfectant, more of these rubber gloves, some tweezers, a scalpel, a powerful torch and something to hold the wound open, you know, like some forceps? To be really safe, we’re going to need to boil the scalpel and the tweezers. Oh, and we should grab three of the strongest guys we can find.’