They kept looking at the board. They wanted desperately for something new to leap out at them. It didn’t. Quill finally turned to an expectant-looking Costain and made his decision. ‘I’m going to choose to believe,’ he said, ‘that our dream lurker already knows all we know. That he or she might actually get scared off by the idea that we know what they’re up to in our brains. So tonight we try Sefton’s protections, and if we feel we’re being got at, we do our damnedest to wake up, and we don’t yet resort to snorting bloody meth, all right?’

*   *   *

It was in the early hours by the time Costain and Ross got to 16 Leyton Gardens. Ross had asked Costain, as soon as they got in the car, to get out his supply, and he’d demonstrated to her how to sniff it. It felt good; the effect wasn’t as extreme as she’d expected. But then, she’d experienced some extreme things to compare it to. The others could do what they liked; she and Costain had reasons of their own for staying awake.

She’d realized, spending the day with him – sometimes nearby, sometimes away, sometimes with his voice over a speaker – how strange it was for her to be with someone. They’d touched each other in passing, when nobody else was looking, just a hand on her arm. To have touch in her life … it was like a sense she’d lost the use of. There was comfort in it. It made her aware of where the happiness would be if she could feel it. It was like a currency she had none of now, none to pay him back with, none to reward herself with. She was trusting him, and that felt weird too, but he deserved it: every look he gave her, every word he said, told her that he did. Still, she planned to stay right beside him to make sure. If he betrayed her …

She didn’t want to think about that. The meth might make her more paranoid. She had to guard against that.

Every now and then during that day he’d looked to her, as if checking she was okay, as if checking for happiness, and had found … his expression said he was slightly disappointed not to have found it. Every time.

They’d driven past burning cars and heard the thunder of drums and smelt the smoke. But for now it was keeping away from Kentish Town.