Kate remembered the sight of her first clone: the tall bald model, which she had seen a hundred times since in a hundred other clone soldiers. She had believed him to be a real human at the time. He had run around the distant corner in navy blue uniform, with an actual assault rifle in his hands. It had been a sight Kate had never seen before, and would never have expected in a school.

And wow, this clone had been angry. The type of angry she would later learn was built into their neurology, as Nathaniel Pearce had built his soldiers with ‘peace’ and ‘war’ settings. She had seen angry people before, but nobody with that kind of face…

Judit had stopped to bend over and help a frozen student to his feet. When the clone had got too close, she drew out a cutlery knife and went for him. And that was when the clone had shot her to death.

‘Besides,’ said Mark, ‘I’m eighteen now, so I can legally drink this even by old world standards. This is coming back with me tonight, and I’ll still use it to celebrate leaving Oakenfold. Just leaving in a different way.’

Kate jumped at the sound of Mark closing his locker, and followed him further down the corridor. He reached for his radio.

‘Anything yet, guys?’ he asked.

A short pause, which Kate used to collect herself.

‘Nothing in the classrooms,’ came Ewan’s voice. ‘But they give a good view of the outside. Simon mentioned a bunch of metal shapes he saw around the school’s perimeter.’

‘Mentioned them?’

‘He does talk, you know. Around people he actually trusts. He saw these little shapes outside dotted around the place. They look like land mines.’

‘Better be careful on the way out then. Raj, how’s things?’

A short pause, although long enough for Kate to hear Mark’s voice echo off the walls. It had risen above a whisper, and that worried her. Mark’s complacency could spell trouble, but she didn’t dare to tell him with words.

‘I’m here too, you know,’ said Gracie. ‘Raj found the sports hall, and he’s looking through it right now. It’s packed with these huge things.’

‘What kind of things?’ asked Mark, impatiently.

‘He said something about power. He thinks they generate electricity or something. They’re big whirring things that reach halfway to the ceiling.’

‘So that’s how they’re powering the school, huh.’

Kate took out her own radio.

‘No,’ she gasped into it, ‘this is something else. We can power the whole of Spitfire’s Rise with a small petrol generator. Those things in the sports hall are for powering the AME shield.’

‘It’d make sense,’ came another voice, which she recognised as Jack’s. ‘The energy needed to maintain a shield over the school would be massive. Oh, and I’m fine out here, by the way.’