The line cut out. It was a cold and cruel tactic which Pearce must have known would work: remove the other person’s chance to speak, show that you don’t value their words, and the other person won’t value them either. People had done that to Kate all the time back in the old world.

‘Jonathan,’ she yelled to the man inside, hoping the first-name approach would help, ‘he said something about the Harpenden squad being a mile away? You know they won’t let you live, right? If we die, you die with us.’

‘I’ll be keeping my family safe,’ the man muttered, barely audible. ‘That’s all the consolation I need.’

‘Safe from Grant, Marshall and Pearce? These guys are threatening your family and you’re siding with them?’

‘Makes no difference now…’

Kate’s jaw dropped. She had heard the futility in the man’s voice, so blatant that even a girl like Kate could identify it.

‘You’ve already pressed it, haven’t you?’

No answer.

Try not to panic. You’re going to worry, you’re going to get anxious, but try not to panic.

‘But we haven’t seen a flash or anything,’ she continued, ‘so it must take a minute to charge up. How long have we got?’

‘If you escape Oakenfold, my family gets thrown into the Inner City.’

‘How long?’

‘Less with every second.’

There was a disturbance in the light behind the office’s back window. Kate jumped at the sudden appearance of Mark, who lifted his hands into view: a handgun butt in one, and a grenade in the other.

Kate was shocked, but understood that the laptop needed to be destroyed even if the shield couldn’t be stopped. Nonetheless, she felt guilty for reminding Mark about the grenade in his belt before he had run. Mark smashed the glass with his rifle butt, pulled the grenade pin and dropped it through the empty window. It bounced on the floor to the sound of a shriek from Hargreaves before it exploded, ripping him and his laptop to pieces.

Kate was thrown to the back wall of the corridor by the force of the explosion. Suffering from instant sensory overload, she could not tell whether the word ‘sorry’ from Mark in her radio was real or psychosomatic. But as the ringing in her ears faded and the sight returned to her eyes, she heard him asking something. Whatever it was, it didn’t matter. Her hand scrambled to her radio, although she screamed loud enough to be heard school-wide without it.

‘Everyone get out!’ she yelled and she rose to all fours and pushed herself onto her knees. ‘Reinforcements are coming, the shield has been activated, and it’s charging up right now! Get outside!’

Kate didn’t hear the responses. If her friends had any sense, they wouldn’t waste time replying.

What about his family? She asked herself as she tried to stand.