‘The modern world,’ she said quietly after a while. ‘What a place it was. We were all linked via roads and shipping lanes and aeroplanes. We did the work of the disease for it … Pop, pop, pop. It spread across the planet until nearly everyone alive must have been a carrier. And then, some fifteen years ago, it stopped spreading and started to grow. So, you see, anyone born after that first infestation was untouched. That’s you children. You are free of the disease. My fear is, though, that when it has reached a certain stage it will emerge again. Pop! The spores will be on the wind once more.’

‘They’re massing,’ said Trio.

‘What’s that, my dear?’

‘The sickos, the diseased adults, they’re massing. All grouping together.’

‘Perhaps they’re getting ready for the final stage,’ said Amelia. ‘But I don’t know. There’s still so much I can never know.’

Amelia was growing tired, her body slumping. She gave in to small yawns that she tried unsuccessfully to hide behind her hand, and her head kept tipping forward.

‘South America,’ said Trey. ‘That’s where it came from. The Amazon rainforest, the big green.’

Amelia seemed to come awake suddenly, to come alive.

‘Are you sure of this?’

‘Yes. Because our parents were the carriers. The people who first brought it out of the jungle and into the wider world.’

‘I knew you were special when I saw you,’ said Amelia, her eyes glinting. ‘You and I are going to need to have a long talk.’

Chapter 41

41

Framed by the bedroom window, the moon was riding high in the sky, thin clouds drifting in front of it, lit up a ghostly grey. A few stars showed through the silver veil, but there was a mistiness to the night that blurred and hid things. Brooke wondered how many other children might be looking up at the moon right now.

She was focusing her attention out there, in space, because she was finding it hard to think about what was going on down here. Right here, in this room where Macca was slowly dying. Little old Norman had done what he could, but Macca had lost a lot of blood and an infection had got into his body and the doctor didn’t have the drugs to fight it. Macca was burning up, his skin turning blotchy. He was feverish, slept most of the time, a restless, fidgety, troubled sleep, and would wake up babbling.

The only thing that seemed to calm him down, to make him happy and peaceful, was Brooke. She hadn’t left the room since they’d arrived.