Ewan watched Shannon as she arrived first through the tunnel door. She gazed at the crowd as she entered, looking concerned but unsurprised. Somehow, Ewan could read her feelings better than other people’s.

Her first reaction was to walk past him, her hand brushing deliberately along his fingers. It was a nonverbal, discreet way of saying ‘I’m happy you’re safe – we’ll talk later, when we’re alone.’ Shannon headed to Kate on the stairs, and whispered something that included the words ‘sorry’ and ‘Raj’. She offered Kate a hug, which she accepted.

Alex wandered into the armoury, uniting all eleven surviving Underdogs in the same room, and let out a huff towards the crowd.

‘We need to talk,’ said McCormick.

‘Fine, thanks. How was your morning?’

Sarcasm, thought Ewan. Predictable response.

‘Now, Alex,’ McCormick said.

‘Alright,’ Alex began, removing his weapons and placing them back on their shelves as if to pretend the crowd weren’t there. ‘Number one, I’m not a clone. Number two, I have never been through a cloning machine or anything. So I can’t help you much, really.’

‘But you were cloned, Alex,’ said Ewan, twice as loud as normal. ‘With or without your permission, Nathaniel Pearce grew three copies of you. And probably a thousand more. If you’re not willing to talk about this—’

‘There’s nothing to talk about,’ said Alex, dumping his knife onto its regular shelf and leaning against the wall unarmed. ‘I’ve had a lot of time to think about this in comms, and the more I think about it the less I have to offer you.’

‘Then you must have seen this question coming,’ came Mark’s voice. ‘Someone’s got to ask, so it might as well be me. How do we know you’re not a clone yourself?’

Alex rolled his eyes, and pointed to his lips.

‘Words. Duh.’

Ewan looked across the crowd, as a reminder for him to keep his temper under control – for his own sake and for everyone else’s. A day earlier, Alex’s argument would have been good enough. That morning, an extra layer of paranoia got in the way.

Jack spoke first.

‘Do you really think Pearce is incapable of making a clone with functioning vocal cords?’ he asked.

‘We’ve not seen one so far,’ spat Alex.

‘He’ll have his own reasons,’ Jack answered, stimming his fingers to help him concentrate. ‘Probably to control his minions. But he must be able to make speaking clones. I’ll ask again – do you really think Nathaniel Pearce can grow a clone with a complete digestive system, nervous system, circulatory system and a full set of organs, and a brain that enables them to operate radios and basic computers, but somehow find vocal cords too tricky? Shannon, back me up here.’

Ewan turned around, and saw Shannon jump in surprise at the foot of the stairs. Almost like a deer in headlights.

‘What?’