He moved closer still, and his hand came up as if he was going to stroke her face. Samira frowned, and at the last moment Paul jerked his arm up quickly and punched her in the throat.

The stab was hard and deep. And then, with a sideways swipe, Paul’s knife tore through Samira’s windpipe and carotid artery. She choked and gurgled. Fell backwards, paralyzed by the shock. Her heart spasmed and froze and she crashed into a glass display case and then flopped to the floor.

As her heart stopped beating there was surprisingly little blood.

Paul leant over her, sniffed, checked she was dead.

He hadn’t expected it to be quite this easy.

He’d come in through the door that led from the roof terrace next to the laboratory café. He’d been intending to make his way to the exhibition hall, but had spotted Samira and changed his plan. It would be easy to drag her back out on to the roof and across to his den from here.

Boney-M waddled and flopped over, poked at the unmoving body with his long, hard, pointy beak.

‘I didn’t know you had it in you. Thought you had pisswater running in your veins.’

Paul kicked the bird aside.

‘Go away,’ he snarled. ‘This is my kill.’

Boney-M called him a string of dirty names and Paul booted him into the corner. Laughed as the bird fell apart in a jumble of bones and leathery bits of skin and oily feathers.

He’d show the bird who was boss. He’d show everyone.

He leant down and picked Samira up.

Chapter 28

28

‘Ella? What the hell are you doing?’ Jibber-jabber was standing with his trousers round his ankles, shaking violently, anger and relief and embarrassment struggling to get the upper hand.

Ella burst into tears. ‘I heard something,’ she said. ‘I wanted to hide. I didn’t know where you were. I came in here. I didn’t want to shout out in case it heard me.’

‘What? In case what heard you?’

‘The thing, the thing out there, it was following me. It’s after me.’

Jibber-jabber pulled up his trousers.

‘We’re getting out of here.’

‘But it’s there. It’s out there.’

‘We’re going to run,’ said Jibber-jabber, his voice wobbly. ‘Back to the stairs and up to the gallery, and we’re going to yell and scream all the way and somebody’s going to help us. I’m not staying in this bloody toilet a moment longer.’

They stumbled out of the cubicle, Ella clinging on to his arm. The guttering tea light sent wild shapes leaping and skittering about the toilet. They stopped by the sinks. They could see something moving outside, approaching the open door, throwing a big shadow across the floor. Crawling, sniffing, inhuman.

‘Are you ready?’ Jibber-jabber whispered. ‘We’re going to run.’