Don’t be scared. There’s nothing down there. So long as you do exactly what I tell you, there’s no way there’ll be anything alive in there …

Yeah. Except the flies, filling the place with their noise.

You won’t be scared, will you?

No. Of course not. It was just her and the flies. But the light from the torch was jumping about all over the place and her teeth were clamped so tightly together to stop them from rattling that her jaw was aching. Halfway down Ella stopped to throw up, spattering the creaky wooden steps with watery sick.

When she got to the bottom, she found a small dry cellar. Cobwebs covered the walls – the spiders in this house must be fat as mice – and there, in the corner, just as Scarface had described it, was a large metal box with a padlock on it. Once again Ella selected the right key and tried to poke it in the lock with trembling hands. It took her several goes and she swore at herself until she got it right.

Get the kit and get out. Don’t look in any other rooms …

Inside the box was a rucksack. It was a big green army thing with a camouflage pattern and it was almost too heavy for her to lift. The first few times she got it halfway out and let it slip back. Eventually, though, she managed to haul it over the edge and it fell to the floor with a thump, sending up an explosion of dust.

She dragged it across the floor and began to bump it up the steps. The dust and dirt in the house were sticking to her sweaty skin and she had to keep spitting it out of her mouth and trying to cough her throat clear.

It took her ages to get the rucksack up the steps, but when at last it was up she found it much easier to haul down the corridor and through the kitchen to the hallway. It got caught on something in the kitchen doorway, though, and she tugged and pulled until it came away with a jerk and she staggered back, exhausted, and fell on to the main staircase, surrounded by a cloud of buzzing flies. Ella closed her eyes, let them land on her, ignoring the tickle as they explored her face, pretended she was dead and nothing could annoy her. Nothing could hurt her. She could easily fall asleep now, but another gush of sick woke her up and this time it sprayed over her shoes.