‘Mola and Mr McKinley. Do you remember that thing he said the first time we met him? Something like: better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool, than to open it and remove all doubt. It’s a bit like what Mola says about silence not being empty …’

I complete the sentence. ‘It’s full of answers.’

Susan sighs and nods, slowly. ‘What are we going to do, Malcolm?’

We. I like that.

But it doesn’t mean I know what to do.

Chapter 61

I’m back home and upstairs minutes before Dad gets in. Billy hasn’t noticed my absence and shoots off, leaving his Xbox behind. I don’t think Dad likes him. Susan said she’ll message me later, to check on Seb.

I can’t concentrate on anything. I keep replaying in my head the conversation we had with one of the doctors when he said that Seb might be in this state for days, but that they didn’t know, and they’d have to wait for the results of tests, and that they were consulting with another doctor in California, but there’s an eight-hour time difference …

And now everything is lost. My one chance to get the world’s last Dreaminator snatched from me.

Dad comes in and flops down on the sofa opposite. I don’t even have a chance to say, ‘How is he?’ He starts talking straight away, in a kind of monotone.

‘No developments. At the moment, all they’re saying is that he is “stable”. They’ve ordered up some bit of machinery from another hospital that will give them a better look at his brainwave pattern, but it’s got to come from Manchester. They’re not ruling out infection. In some cases, the body can sort of put itself into a coma in an attempt to fight an illness, but they can’t understand why there’s no fever …’

And so on. I try to take it all in but I can’t. Instead, I just stare at the silent figures on Wolf’s Lair, paused on the screen, mid-battle, waiting for someone to take up the console again.

I have to ask Dad, but I’m a bit nervous.

‘The, erm … Dreaminators? Did they …?’ I want to know if they – that is, the doctors or researchers or whoever – have discovered anything. Perhaps it’s a bit early, but still …

‘No, Malky,’ says Dad. ‘I handed them over to Dr Nisha. I felt like I was mad for even bothering her with them.’

‘So you didn’t bring them back?’

Dad’s tone is soft, or perhaps just exhausted. ‘No, Malky, I didn’t. And, until Seb is back with us safe and well, I don’t want to hear them mentioned again, all right?’