Tanisha and Kurt stare at me in horror.

‘Do you mean he’s sent one of our tinies on a suicide mission? I don’t believe it. None of our kids would agree to do that,’ Tanisha says.

‘I doubt he’s asked them,’ Ven says.

‘Ven’s right,’ I say. ‘He’s not going to tell the kid his plan, they might blab or screw it up. He’s just going to use them as a carrier.’

‘That guy is seriously wrong.’ Kurt’s forehead crumples. ‘Why would he turn a little kid into a bomb?’

‘Because it was the only idea his feeble brain could come up with that seemed to guarantee success.’ Ven rifles through a shelf of equipment and locates a bashed-up communicator. ‘It’s almost as if the universe thinks that solving one life-threatening situation would be too easy for me,’ he says. ‘So now we’ve got two major problems.’ He passes the communicator to me. ‘You’re the technology expert. Can you fix that?’

I take a look. ‘I can try.’

‘Do it.’

‘I still don’t get it,’ Kurt persists. ‘We were planning to get The Leader and the Leadership anyway, why is Nard trying to do a new plan?’

‘Because he wants to be the one to kill The Leader. And he wants to do it his way.’ Ven rubs a hand across his face. ‘We need to split up.’

I nod.

‘Blake, you come with me to sort out the huge mess that Robin has caused and you two can deal with Nard’s explosives obsession.’

‘What do we do?’ Tanisha asks.

Kurt is slack-jawed, looking between us and the girl.

‘Maybe I should go with Tanisha,’ I say.

‘Because you’d be great at spotting the girl with the secret bomb? How many of the Resistance girls aged seven to eleven do you think you would recognise, Blake? Can I suggest for not the first time in our acquaintance that you remember that all of my decision-making is based on reason, and that if you feel the need to reverse one of those decisions you should assume that you are wrong and shut the efwurd up.’

‘I just . . .’ I look at Kurt.

‘Kurt is going to be fine, aren’t you, Kurt? Kurt has had years of training, all of which is going to inform what he does next. Kurt and Tanisha are going to the square now. One of them is going to watch the gate and the other one is going to patrol the square until they find the Resistance girl. Remember that, Kurt, you’re looking for one of our girls around this high.’ He gestures with his hand. ‘When you find her you take her to the nearest quiet space – off the top of my head I’m going to suggest a toilet stall – and you deactivate that bomb.’

‘I can deactivate a bomb,’ I say. ‘At least, I think I can. We learnt about it in our Future Leaders sessions.’

‘Tanisha can do it. She’s practised on the real thing.’

Tanisha makes to speak but Ven cuts her off. ‘If you really can’t do it, then get it well away from the crowds of people.’ He looks at his watch. ‘The Leader isn’t scheduled to speak until twelve, so I think we can assume that if Nard has made a bomb it won’t be programmed to go off until around that time. You’ve got less than two hours.’

‘We need a car,’ Tanisha says.

‘The entire district is busy celebrating. If you can’t steal a car in these conditions then you’re not the girl I thought you were.’ Ven dismisses her with a nod.

‘Let’s go, Blake.’

‘But what about the girl?’ Kurt asks. ‘Can we let her go?’

‘I told you, she’s a risk.’ Ven moves to the door.

I follow him. I’m sorry for the little girl, but no harm is going to come to her in the lock-up.

‘Then I’ll stay here with her,’ Kurt says.

Ven spins back round. ‘The hell you will. Listen to me, Kurt, there’s another sweet little girl out there and, unlike this one who is safe in a storage unit, she’s got a ton of explosives strapped to her. I’m not losing you to babysitting duty.’

‘Okay, okay.’ Kurt takes the girl’s hand and starts whispering to her rapidly, telling her not to worry and that he’ll come back and set her free. Then he follows Tanisha down the street and Ven and I go back to the car.

He accelerates away so fast that I’m thrown back in my seat. I prise open the back of the communicator and take a look.

‘The failsafe fuse has blown,’ I say. ‘I need something metallic to bypass it.’

‘I don’t know if you’ve noticed,’ Ven says, ‘but my hands are pretty full with keeping us on the road while we travel at high speeds. You’re going to have to find your own something metallic.’

I poke about in the storage section of my door. Nothing useful there. In the glove compartment the first thing I notice is a gun, but since that’s no use to me at the moment I keep looking. I find a ballpoint pen, which I take apart and, using the little metal spring inside, I manage to get the communicator working again.

I try to call Patrick over and over, but either something has happened to prevent him from answering, or their communicator has now been cut off too. I have to hope it’s the latter.

Robin’s team were heading for the media sector of the central district. We have no choice but to chase after them.

‘What the hell was Nard thinking?’ Ven snarls.

‘It’s just like you said, he wants to be the one to kill The Leader.’

‘We’re going to kill The Leader and we’re going to do it in the most effective way. We’re not going to murder innocent children at the same time. Do you know how powerful the stuff Nard took is? Powerful enough to take out far more than that square. Does he think anyone will have any sympathy with the Resistance if we kill a load of families on their day out? And what about our message? What about the uprising? The celebrations will be called off and we’ll have lost the chance to make our point.’

It’s all true and I haven’t got anything helpful to add.

Ven is curled over the steering wheel, radiating anger and tension. I can almost hear his mind whirring through possibilities. In the middle of my swirling despair I try to hold on to Ven’s brilliance. His and mine. Between us there must be a solution.

‘We can fix this,’ I say.

And for the first time I’m glad that we’re on the same side.

It doesn’t take us long before we reach the main road into the central district, which Robin’s team must have taken to get to their destination. When we hit it, Ven really puts his foot down and we burn along. There’s very little traffic. Everyone will be at home or at parties. We’re travelling much faster than the bus carrying Robin’s team could; we should be able to catch them up. And then what will happen? Are the guards already on the tail of the bus? Have they caught them?

While I’m trying to prepare for the various scenarios that might greet us, I continue to try to reach them on their communicator. I’m still dialling when we turn a corner and Ven sucks in his breath hard. As I look up, he swerves violently to avoid a stationary red van in the middle of the road, which almost sends us into a skid. I twist around to look at the van; there’s a red-clad guard slumped over the wheel.

‘Driver’s dead,’ I say. Then I notice that his passenger has fallen out of the van on to the road. The wind catches his jacket and it flaps about like a broken wing.

‘Do you think they were after our lot?’ Ven asks.

I spot another body not dressed in red. Instead, she’s in a black uniform. But her face with its blank staring eyes seems too young to be a real delivery person.

‘Yes.’ I point towards the girl. ‘I think they had a shootout.’ I look around to see if there’s any sign of the bus or more Resistance members.

‘They can’t be far away,’ Ven says. ‘We’ve got to get them off that bus before every guard in the district shows up.’

‘And get rid of the bracelet and find out if they’re missing a small child who may now be an unwitting suicide bomber,’ I say.

‘Yes, thank you, Blake, I am so glad that I brought you along. You always know just how to lift my spirits.’

The road starts an ascent and I turn around to look back at the bodies behind us. I try to picture what happened. The guards appearing behind the bus are starting to shoot. The team leaning out of the windows to retaliate . . . Are there casualties on the bus? Please let Ilex be all right.

We approach the brow of the hill and I sit up straight, ready to scan the road running down in front of us.

The car reaches the top and there, at the bottom, I see the bus.

Consumed by flames.