When the fence came down, only some of the students fled. Some didn’t want to risk getting shot. Some were frozen in panic. Some of the Block One students simply thought they weren’t allowed to leave school, because it wasn’t home time.

Kate had watched as James had frozen himself to the swing, too deep in his routine-based comfort zone. But eventually he had relented and taken his younger sister’s hand. Maybe the fear of losing Kate had been worse than the fear of breaking his routine.

In what she remembered as Oakenfold’s proudest moment, each Block Two student chose someone with a more noticeable disability, and brought them along on their escape. Even Silent Simon had found another student with Down’s Syndrome and helped her along.

In what she remembered as Oakenfold’s most shameful moment, it had taken five minutes for them all to realise the difficulty of guiding profoundly disabled teenagers through the countryside with a literal army giving chase. Even Ewan – who had been absent that day, but met them in a field on his way to Oakenfold after something dreadful had happened at his house – had been in no position to come up with bright ideas. When a row of soldiers appeared at the end of the field, Mark had shouted ‘get bloody running, they’re not worth it!’ and everyone had obeyed.

Everyone except Kate, who had tried. But two minutes later…

She had evaded the oncoming army, and James had followed his captors as instructed. Within a few minutes, she had found the group again and joined them in their confused chaos.

So there they were: the last free students of Oakenfold. Kate, Mark, Ewan, Raj, Simon, Jack, Gracie, Sarah, Callum, Joe, Chloe, Sally, Rachael, Daniel and Charlie. (Kate raised an eyebrow when she realised she had thought of the dead students in Memorial Wall order.) They had wandered across the fields in a clueless daze, until Ewan had run ahead to find a place to shelter. He had later returned – with bloodied hands – and guided them all to the place he’d found. Inside, an ageing man with tears in his eyes had welcomed them…

‘Judit Ciskal?’ asked Mark. ‘Receptionist extraordinaire?’

Kate nodded.

‘Looks about her height. I remember her running around as well. So maybe Paul Dale’s still alive… guess we’ll never know. Let’s get to his office.’

Kate followed, hiding her contempt for the young man who had – rightly or wrongly – forced her away from her brother.

One thing was certain, though. Whether the skeleton had been Judit or someone else, Kate had known them personally.