‘Ewan,’ Alex growled like a jaded schoolteacher towards the end of a bitter career, ‘for the last time – I’m not being defiant, I’m not being dishonest – I just literally do not know anything about how they could have cloned me. End of discussion.’

‘Well let’s not give up yet,’ said Ewan. He did his best to use McCormick’s approach to disagreements: discussing them rather than arguing over them. It was difficult when emotions were high, especially with his PDA-inspired need for control kicking in, but it was still the best way into Alex’s brain.

‘One way or another,’ Ewan continued, ‘the cloning happened. Let’s at least find out when it could have been.’

Alex closed his eyes. Perhaps he found it easier to be straightforward when he couldn’t see the people he was accountable to.

‘I’ve not been anywhere interesting in a year,’ he said, ‘except New London. Last time I was there we destroyed the clone factory. Well, you guys did – I saw the place, took a bullet to the shoulder and spent the next three days in a bungalow. Either way, my clones must have been grown there before you blew the place up.’

‘And when did you see New London before that?’

‘The day Ben Christie died. Months ago.’

‘OK,’ said Ewan, ‘so it must have happened when… on the clone factory mission.’

‘ When Charlie died ’ . I a lmost let that sentence slip out.

‘I was pretty crap, to be fair,’ said Alex with a bitter laugh. ‘Didn’t last an hour before getting shot. By the afternoon I was wrapping my shoulder in someone’s shirts, trying to stop the blood.’

Ewan couldn’t help but offer a well-humoured smile. Alex never talked about his failures, so it was only polite to avoid rubbing them in when he did.

‘The next three days were the most boring of my life,’ Alex continued. ‘Or they would have been, if I hadn’t spent them worrying about you guys.’

‘Flattery will get you nowhere,’ grunted Mark through a mouthful of carrot.

‘No, I actually mean it,’ said Alex. ‘That was the whole adventure for me, except for going upstairs with Kate, getting shot and going downstairs again.’

Kate was with him for the start of that day , and she never reported anything unusual…

Then h e was on his own. Cornered in the clone factory ’s alpha control room with no witnesses .

‘Alex… what happened once you were trapped in that control room?’

‘I got out and reached the bungalow.’

‘Take me step by step. How did it happen?’

‘I took a rifle from one of the dead clones, shot my way free, then got out and reached the bungalow.’

Ewan’s eyes widened. He looked over to Mark, who had also noticed the vagueness in his answer.

‘Step by step, Alex. Start from when you shot your way free.’

Alex opened his mouth, and nothing came out.