Sophie’s face lit up in a smile and then instantly went sour.

‘You’re not … You weren’t a friend of …’

‘Of Arran? No. I was with the other camp. One of Blue’s crew. You disappeared when we got to the palace.’

‘I didn’t feel welcome there. Not by David and not by Maxie and her people. Not after what happened with Arran.’

‘Was an accident,’ said Lewis. ‘We all knew that. Weren’t your fault. He was dying anyways, I reckon, seeing what’s gone down with other kids as got bit. You did him a favour.’

‘I still felt awful. Shooting him like that. Tell you the truth, we wanted to get out of town as well; it had always been our plan. We came out west. Been moving around ever since. A little while at Windsor to start with, but the set-up there reminded me too much of David at Buckingham Palace. Too many rules. Obnoxious bastards in charge: the Golden Twins, they call themselves. A pair of right pains. We were in Bracknell for a bit, but then we linked up with a gang of archers from Ascot. It was a better fit. Been there a couple of weeks now. It’s OK there. Some of the kids are a bit weird, but we get along OK. They’re organized at least. Might move on in the summer, though.’

Sophie paused. Smiled again. ‘It’s Lewis, isn’t it? I remember now. The hair.’

‘You do remember me. Cool.’

‘I didn’t really clock you all in the dark. You’re not all from Holloway, are you?’

‘No. We a mix. Ebenezer come out of Holloway, but we’ve left the palace and moved to the Natural History Museum. We was like you, couldn’t stick that David dickhead. See the girl there, with the scar?’

‘Yeah? Was she from Holloway?’

‘No. You remember, just before we got to the palace we found some kids being massacred close by Green Park tube station?’

‘Yeah. It was pretty horrible.’

‘She was the one we rescued.’

‘No way! You’re kidding.’

‘Straight up. You got to meet her, girl. She’s way cool.’

‘I will. God, this is so freaky. Your guy said you were looking for someone?’

‘Yeah.’

And so Lewis explained about Ella and Sam and Maeve and Robbie and Monkey-Boy. And Sophie thought maybe she remembered Ella. Although Lewis thought she probably didn’t. One thing was certain, though: Ella wasn’t at Ascot, and Sophie hadn’t heard anyone talking about a gang of kids coming out of London.

So they walked on through the night, and it felt good to talk, to remember all they’d been through since leaving Holloway.

At last Sophie said they were getting close to Ascot and Lewis wondered what turn their lives was going to take now.

‘What we gonna find when we get there?’ he asked Sophie.