Even when Spitfire’s Rise had been crowded, Ewan’s bedroom had always been his sanctuary. It would not remain that way for much longer. Once he walked out of the bedroom he would never return to it – regardless of whether or not they won.

Ewan could not remember the last time he’d felt so frustrated and insecure inside Spitfire’s Rise. It was probably back in the early days, during a Temper Twin incident with Charlie. Or maybe even on Takeover Day itself, when he was frightened enough to shoot—

‘Ewan?’ came a friendly voice from outside the bedroom. Ewan turned his head to the door and found Shannon poking her face inside. Once she saw that the bedroom was unoccupied except for him, she walked in and sat down beside him on the bed.

‘You alright?’ Ewan asked.

‘Yeah, I’m no stranger to this,’ Shannon replied, her face to the floor. ‘This is the third time I’ve had to run away in the last month. Abandoning New London with Anthony Lambourne… getting taken from the clinic by Keith Tylor… and now fleeing Spitfire’s Rise. Pretty much my whole life has involved running away from things.’

Ewan sighed. Shannon had only been with them for three weeks, and the house already meant as much to her as it did to him. Normally, that would annoy him: how could her mere three weeks of attachment possibly compare to his year-minus-two-days? But somehow, Ewan was fine with her sharing his feelings.

‘Are you busy?’ she asked. ‘I thought you were packing, or…’

‘Just pretending to be,’ Ewan answered. ‘Needed some time to myself. I’m fine with you being here though.’

‘Are you OK?’

‘No.’

‘…Can I help?’

‘No.’

‘Do you mean that, or are you just frustrated?’

Ewan paused. His second ‘no’ had been automatic, and she had caught him out. He was sitting next to the best possible person to help – the only Underdog who had ever seen the uppermost floors of New London.

‘Well,’ he answered, ‘I suppose if you have any tips for getting past Floor F, I’m listening.’

Floor F was the highest accessible storey from regular stairwells. According to the stolen schematics, the stairwells only connected neighbouring floors after that: one stairwell from F to E, a separate one from E to D, and so on. And according to the papers Raj had found at Oakenfold, some of the AME technology was kept as high as Floor B.

‘Make sure you have keycards ready,’ Shannon answered. ‘Human keycards. Clones can’t go higher than F unless humans let them up there.’

Ewan held his face and swore into his hands. Humans were rarely found below Floor F, which complicated things even further.