But even then, better that than losing the war.

‘Five.’

Screw it, let’s do this.

‘Four—’

‘Stop!’ Alex had yelled, to the horror and relief of his father.

Crossland closed her mouth and smiled.

‘…Lemsford,’ Alex had said, remembering Matthew’s room and the dinosaur bedsheets. ‘Spitfire’s Rise is in Lemsford. But you don’t have to kill them! Just make them surrender—’

‘Which house in Lemsford?’

‘I don’t know. School Lane or something, I think? We never need to remember road names…’

Gwen Crossland had given him a pat on the back, and said no more.

‘Hey. Woman.’

Dean Ginelli’s voice had power, even from the other side of a small laptop screen. Crossland had given him her attention.

‘You don’t need to use me as leverage anymore,’ Alex’s father had said with a crestfallen voice. ‘I no longer consider him my son.’

Before Alex could respond, Crossland had powered down the laptop.

‘Thank you, Alex,’ she had finished. ‘We will keep your father in a safe place until we have visited Lemsford and determined whether your answer was accurate. If it was not accurate, then—’

‘Then my father is dead, I know.’

‘That too. But we’ll also initiate Plan B. We’ll take you back to New London and open your skull, and spend the next week transferring your memories to a new clone model. There’s no guarantee they will lead us accurately to Spitfire’s Rise, of course – science offers no guarantees about anything – hence why we tried the living method first, but it’s more likely to work than listening to more lies. Good day, Alex.’

Within two minutes she and her clone entourage had left the house, and driven away with ‘Barbie Girl’ blasting out of the speakers. Then Alex had gone back to his dutiful clueless self, guarding the bungalow and waiting for his friends to escape New London.

*

Back in the disused Alpha Control Room, Alex staggered to his feet, lay a hand against the diagonal windows and suppressed the contents of his stomach as they threatened to rise. The memory blast had provided the physical pain, and the betrayal of his father had provided the emotional pain.

He checked his watch. It had felt like several days had passed, but it wasn’t yet ten o’clock. There would be plenty of time before Grant replaced the border point and booted up the AME shield.

‘Guys,’ came Ewan’s voice from the radio, ‘I’m on Floor E. I found a stairwell. Anyone need directions?’

‘Not yet,’ said Kate.

‘Yeah,’ said Alex.

Ewan told him the route, but he only paid as much attention as he had to. Once he had memorised the directions, he skipped to the end of the report in his hands. Before moving forward with the night’s mission, he had to find out what had happened.