‘You can’t cuff me,’ I shout, ramming her with my back. ‘I haven’t done anything.’

‘Try me,’ she hisses, digging her fingers into my shoulders.

‘…Andromeda, she said. What? Yes, Andromeda…’

‘Give it up, Baz,’ the female guard drawls behind me. ‘Just call Nine, that’s where she reckons she works, isn’t it? Then we can chalk her up as another nutter and get out of here.’

I stop straining as he glares at us, poking a finger into his ear.

‘…Pegasus, or something. All sorts. Ranting and raving really … What, now? Why?’

The whirl calms, suddenly, like we’ve all passed into the eye of 169a storm. Carly quiets as I sit, perfectly still. The guard tenses her grip on my shoulders.

‘…Of course I will, if you think that’s necessary … Sorry, boss, didn’t mean…’ He pulls the phone away from his ear, blinking and staring at it before clicking it back into its red cradle.

‘Baz? You lost it or what? It’s gone five.’

He ignores her, hand still resting on the phone. I don’t dare blink.

‘Baz! We done or what?’

He turns, resting his eyes on me. Baz. For just that second I wonder what his real name is.

‘See?’ I say, wincing as fingers dig back into my neck. ‘I told you, didn’t I?’

‘What’s your name?’ He steps towards me.

‘Did they tell you to ask me that?’

We stare at each other.

‘No,’ he says, after a minute.

‘Baz. What the fuck is this?’ The female guard lets go of my shoulders.

‘Don’t fucking move,’ he says to me, beckoning her over to the door. I wrap my arms around myself as they whisper in the corner, closing my eyes for just a moment to watch as Carly wipes her eyes. But then the floor shakes, my eyes start to water, and I find them both standing in front of me.

‘You’re coming with us,’ the guard says. Baz.

‘I am, am I? Where?’

‘Upstairs,’ he says. ‘The boss wants a word. But no funny business, OK?’

‘Who’s the boss? Shacklin?’

‘Just come with us,’ he says, leaning forward to haul me upright. ‘You’ve got an appointment, after all, haven’t you?’

I tense as the woman’s hand closes round my other arm.

‘Yes,’ I say, shaking myself between them. ‘Do you do this to everyone who’s got one?’

‘You’re a special case, apparently. Come on.’ 170

We move as a unit across the lobby, Carly like a sprite at my shoulder, until we reach a set of lifts in the far wall.