Nothing happened. Lucas worked for the Mandate, but clearly wasn’t high in the ranks. Not like Atlas. That she’d been worried about telling Atlas about Lucas in case he got hurt made her want to pull her hair out in handfuls.

Deimos and Phobos approached behind her, five large stuffed packs in tow and arms full of weapons.

“We found camp gear in there.” Phobos grinned in the dark.

It was a good find, she knew that. She just couldn’t bring herself to care.

Romy’s eyes flicked across the screen. So much of this could be useful: Long-term settlement forecast, transmission codes. But there was one thing they needed.

New World: Australia (Settlements: 2148 census)

Got it.

She clicked on the heading, and held her breath as the file opened. A map was loading.

“Where’s the map I gave you?” she ordered.

Phobos swung his backpack to the ground and rifled through the contents.

The screen loaded in front of them. And for the first time, the knot saw where on Earth they were.

“Jimboomba” was spelled out in red capitals halfway up the Queensland state, inland. Elara was right. They weren’t as close to the beach as the old map told them. This settlement was entirely different from the old Jimboomba.

Deimos and Phobos flattened the 2017 map on the floor. They needed to mark the other settlements on the page. They needed to avoid them. Romy pulled up short. They had nothing to mark the page with.

Blood dropped from her hair to the ground. The red on her hand caught her eye in front of the shining screen. The bells in her head started afresh … but … there was nothing else.

Romy squeezed her hand in her hair, looked at the screen and pressed her forefinger onto the map. A bloody fingerprint was left north-west of Jimboomba over another settlement’s location.

“That is—”

“Shut it, Pho.”

Romy worked quickly, translating the locations. She ignored the little island below the main island of Australia, expecting there was no way they would ever get there with the strip of sea in between.

Nine of the locations had thick red rings around them. Romy took that to mean they were major bases. Wetting her forefinger, she made the circles over these locations bigger. Two of them, New Brisbane and New Cairns, were close to Jimboomba.

Job done, she returned to the screen, scrolling.

“We’ve gotta go, Ro. It’s midnight. We have six hours to get a safe distance away from here.”

The words “Mandate Operatives” blared at her from the e-storage screen.

“You know we need that time,” Phobos insisted.

With an aggravated growl, Romy turned from the screen and glared up at her friends.

Deimos was tucking the map back inside the rucksack. “We have plenty of information for now.”

She nodded stiffly.

Phobos pocketed the keycard. He eyed the others, taking two packs and swinging three guns over his shoulder.