‘Getting out’s not an essential part of the plan. You know that. Like Oliver Roth, safety is just bonus points.’

‘Don’t you dare—’

‘Lorraine, this is why the plan will work. When Grant designed this place, he assumed it would be attacked by people who planned to get out. And I hope I’ll get out. But I know where my priorities lie.’

‘Joseph, promise me—’

In the dental mirror, McCormick saw a flash of green light and a guard’s head turning. Something had unlocked the titanium door, and his time had come. With no time to lose on politeness, he hung up his phone and raised his assault rifle.

If Barbara could see him now, she would not recognise him. She would look at him with terrified eyes and see another person.

But that was OK, in the grand scheme of things.

Or perhaps not OK. Just necessary.

The titanium door slid open, and McCormick leapt around the corner. His first spray of bullets killed two of the outdoor guards, injured the third in his shoulder, and caught the clone in the doorway straight in the forehead. Dr Joseph McCormick, the oldest and frailest soldier in Great Britain, had forced a breach point in the High Priority Functional Cluster.

The third guard had no time to inspect his shoulder wound before McCormick’s second spray killed him too. The three inside guards were busy pulling the jammed bodies away from the entrance in an attempt to lock McCormick out, so there was plenty of time for the man to begin his charge. He sprinted at a speed far too unhealthy for a man his age, and found himself five metres away when the bodies were cleared. He did not have much time.

McCormick knew he would not have the strength to keep a sliding door open against the pull of six hands, so he had to find another blockage. He slammed his body against the entrance, clutched the hair of the Asian clone on the other side, and dragged his head into the hallway. The other two clones hauled the door closed anyway, snapping the bones in their colleague’s neck. The door rebounded open, far enough for McCormick to reach through the gap with his assault rifle, and finish off the final two guards.

Seven young clone soldiers, wiped out by a man nearly old enough for a free bus pass. It pays to be far too ambitious!

McCormick stumbled over the bodies and began his jog. There was panic in the HPFC now, among soldiers who could not possibly have expected an invader.