Eight makes a big show of peeking delicately under a rock and returning it gently to its place. ‘I would just like to say that Stonehenge is only here in the first place because of the Loric. Reynolds said we built it as a cemetery for those who died fighting on Earth.’

‘Really? This is a graveyard?’ Ella asks, walking up behind me and looking around curiously.

‘It was,’ Eight says, patting a large boulder. ‘For thousands of years, at least. And then humans started poking around, doing all that research they love so much. There is nothing like a quest to understand everything, even if there is nothing to know. Whatever. I will honor the placement of the rocks.’ He continues to move as if tiptoeing through a bed of tulips.

‘Let me help.’ I walk carefully among the stones, helping Eight look for the Loralite, floating several rocks inches above the ground before setting them back down exactly as they had been. As I move on to another group of stones I hear shouts in the distance. I lean around a stone to see two men in uniforms running towards the monument, flashlight beams bouncing in the darkness. Ella and I duck down behind the biggest, closest rock formation.

‘Shoot,’ I whisper. ‘Everybody hide.’

We can see the beams from their flashlights scan the ground, and whenever one gets close to us, we shift our position around another stone just in time.

‘I know I heard something out here. Kids’ voices,’ the smaller of the two guards says.

‘Okay. Well, where are they?’ the other guard asks, looking around. There is a distinct note of disbelief in his voice.

Both men are silent for a moment. I peek around the stone to see the larger guard looking around, annoyed by the lack of evidence of intruders. Then something catches his eye, but I can’t see what it is. I’m worried. What could he have found? ‘Bill? Come over here and look at this. Where do you think these came from?’

‘Huh. Don’t know. They sure weren’t there earlier,’ the other says.

I nearly jump out of my skin when Eight materializes next to me. ‘They found our Chests,’ he whispers. ‘I’ll just toss the guards into the pasture, okay? We need to find the Loralite, so we can get the hell out of here, and that’s not going to happen until those guys leave. And I am not letting them leave with our Chests.’ His voice is grim.

I’m about to say no when my brain begins to buzz. After a brief echo of static I hear Ella’s voice in my head: I can distract them while you find the Loralite. I look over at her in shock, eyes wide.

Ella squeezes my hand and whispers, ‘I can distract them –’

‘I already heard you,’ I interrupt. ‘Ella, I heard you in my head!’