The large central control room was chaotic. Some people were tidying their desks, some were monitoring Zephyr. There was a holiday mood in the air, jokes and laughter. Furniture was being moved, consoles dismantled or serviced. A few of the new faces looked at Hepton curiously as he moved past them. He tried to smile and nod affably. Well, he was already in the lion’s cage; he might as well stick his head in a gaping mouth …

He passed Paul Vincent’s desk. It was being dismantled. The computer had already been taken away. He touched the desktop with one finger, then walked to his own console, pulled the chair out and sat down. There was a fine layer of dust on the screen, and he wiped it with the palm of his hand before switching on. A few of the original crew, the genuine crew, saw him and called over. He waved back.

‘Just in to tidy up a bit,’ he explained. Any one of them could be in on it, could be part of the COFFIN conspiracy. He had to move quickly. But then he knew all the moves, didn’t he? He’d been working them out for what seemed like days. He made the link with Zephyr’s onboard computer and checked its co-ordinates. It was just about right. Very soon now, within the next hour, it would be over Buchan. That gave him a little time to crack the access code. He already had two passwords he reckoned to be likely candidates – COFFIN and ARGOS. Then he’d let the computer work on the numerical sequence, if one existed, going through random combinations until it found the right one.

He pulled from his pocket Izzard’s black box. If he remembered the instructions correctly, it would help save time. And time above all was precious. At any moment, he might be discovered. The new faces around him might twist suddenly with hate, guns pulled from pockets. Fagin might appear, or Villiers, or Harry. He didn’t know how long he had. He only prayed it was time enough.

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