Finally there was Trinity, who looked like a girl and a boy fused together. They had a third smaller body on their back that they mostly kept hidden. The girl, Trio, and the boy, Trey, were always arguing with each other and could be quite mouthy, especially the girl. Ed had initially thought the third body on their back was dead, but they assured him he wasn’t. He was called Mister Three, and he woke up every now and then in a bad mood apparently. Ed didn’t want to be around when that happened.

And what did he look like to them? he wondered. A freak, perhaps, with his scarred face pulled out of shape on one side. Brooke didn’t look much better. One day she was going to have to take her bandage off and show the world what had happened to her.

‘Is this going to take long?’ Ed leant against a cabinet with his arms folded, making sure they knew how impatient he was.

‘Not at all,’ said Trey.

‘You hope,’ said his ‘sister’, Trio.

‘So?’ Ed just wanted to be out of there. On his way.

‘When we left Heathrow …’ said Trio, ‘the Warehouse Queen gave us some orders, which was, like, typical. We were to learn as much as we could about, you know, what you might call the outside world. And what I’m saying, and I don’t mean to be rude, yeah? This is, like, all very impressive and that, but it’s just, really, you know, like, a museum. It’s hardly the big wide world. So we think one of us ought to come with you.’

Ed sighed. Looked at his shoes. They were wearing out. He’d need to find some new ones soon.

‘With all respect,’ he said, ‘we need fighters. I can’t take passengers.’

‘We have skills,’ said Skinner.

‘Yeah? Like what?’ Ed didn’t want to sound harsh, but he was worried they’d hold things up and he’d have to nanny them all of the way.

‘Well, not me personally … obviously,’ said Skinner, sounding defeated. ‘I’m pretty useless. I can’t really do that much.’ He gave a little laugh. ‘But the others.’

‘I’m waiting.’

‘We know what’s going on,’ said Trey.

‘You mean your mind-reading thing?’ Ed looked at Trey and Trio, wondering if they knew what he was thinking right now. ‘The way you can get inside our minds?’

‘Not yours,’ said Trey. ‘We can’t read minds as such, ordinary minds.’

‘I thought you could.’ Maybe Ed had got it wrong. ‘How does it work then?’

‘Sickos,’ said Skinner. ‘That’s what you call them, yeah?’

‘Yeah.’