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Barb had run and limped back to the farm and had been in such a state by the time she arrived that it took a while to get the story from her.

‘They’ve put a Wucker in charge. Not just any Wucker. His name’s Shaw. He was meant to get Vander and Mary, but they messed up.’

‘They came to the flats, but we escaped,’ Mary whispered.

‘Yes, it was him. So they’ve demoted him. He’s mad, really mad, because he hates the Bank. He grew up there.’ Barb took a breath and hoped no one had spotted the gaps in the story. ‘I have to go back.’

‘Not yet. We’ll plan this.’

‘No, I have to go back now. He’s got my sister, Beal.’

Mary gasped.

‘He’s lying,’ Max said grimly.

‘What if he isn’t?’ Barb shot back. ‘I don’t think he has enough imagination to make that up. He looked so confident. He knows he has a hold over me.’ She turned to Mary. ‘You met her. He said she was at that hall you infected. What did she look like?’

Mary flinched but closed her eyes, trying hard to remember Beal. It seemed like another lifetime, and she had no idea how to begin a description. ‘She looked like a girl …’

‘Did she look like me?’ Barb shouted, as she banged her hand on the table.

Startled, Mary opened her eyes and looked at her intently. ‘I … I think so.’

Barb swore and got up to march around the kitchen.

‘There can’t be many girls called Beal. Realistically, it probably is her, Barb,’ Frank reasoned. ‘But we don’t know if he has her at the Child Bank, and …’

Barb looked at him.

‘We can’t be sure she’s still alive.’

Barb sat down and picked at a rough edge on the table.

‘I have to go back and find out. We need to save her, and we need to get the children away from him too.’

‘We’ll all go.’ Max took her hand, but Barb sprang back.

‘No. Just me.’ What if Max found out that she’d told Shaw where to find Vander and Mary? What if he found out what she had done to make Shaw go?

She pressed her hands to her eyes, trying to stem the tears of fear and anger. ‘He said to go back alone.’ She’d figure it out.

‘Shaw isn’t going to let any of them go without a fight,’ Max pointed out.

‘No,’ Barb agreed quietly.

‘So you can’t fight a Wucker.’ He faltered. ‘I mean, I don’t think any of us can.’

‘We have to do something.’

‘But who here stands a chance against him?’ Max looked around. ‘Seriously, who is going to win against a Wucker? Dad is not well enough to even get there, let alone fight a fit young man, and you’re still injured and don’t have a good record with guns.’

‘You’ll have to do it,’ Barb said bluntly. Perhaps if Max shot him, she’d get away with it. He need never know the whole story.

‘Barb, I really want to help you and the kids, but I don’t think I can.’

‘You’re just going to abandon them?’

‘No. I just don’t know that I can point a gun at a man and shoot him in cold blood. I … I can’t touch guns.’

‘Then get angry!’ she shouted.

‘I don’t think I have it in me to kill.’

‘I do.’

They all turned to Mary, who had been sitting quietly, listening. ‘I have it in me to kill. I don’t mean to, but I’ve killed more people than all the rest of you put together.’

They all thought for a moment.

‘That might be so, but you haven’t done it on purpose. How are you going to take him out?’

She shrugged. ‘I think it might be our only option. I’m your best weapon.’

‘It’s a bit unpredictable,’ Max said uneasily. ‘Shaw might be immune to you.’

‘He won’t be immune to her attractiveness,’ Barb said thoughtfully. ‘If nothing else, you might be able to distract him to allow us to overrun the place.’

‘I don’t like it,’ said Frank. ‘You don’t know what you’re up against.’

Mary shrugged. ‘That’s been true from the start. I’ve managed so far.’

The others all looked at each other miserably.

‘You might be relatively unscathed, but others haven’t been so lucky,’ Barb pointed out tightly.

‘What’s unscathed?’

‘Untouched.’

‘I don’t think I’m unscathed.’

‘Right.’ Barb looked at her. ‘It’s you and me, then.’ Perhaps she could get rid of both of them.

Max spluttered, ‘Of course I’ll come too. I just don’t want you having any illusion that I’m going to be any good in a fight.’

‘Maybe if I give you all a bit of training before you go, you’ll stand a better chance,’ Frank offered. ‘But it’ll have to be tomorrow. It’s getting dark now.’

‘But we have to get back there. Weren’t you listening? Shaw’s a monster. If I don’t go soon, he’ll hurt someone. He’ll hurt Beal.’

‘I reckon you have a day’s grace. He’ll get a little jumpy, but it’s worth being prepared,’ Frank insisted.

‘One day,’ Barb said. ‘We can’t leave it any longer than that.’