‘Are you sure my brother’s not here?’ she piped. ‘He’s called Paul Channing, he’s got black hair, he’s older than me, he’s very tall …’

‘Sorry, precious.’

‘Can you double-check? You might have made a mistake …’

David silenced her. ‘Believe me,’ he said, ‘Jester should know. He knows everything. If he says your brother’s not here, he’s not here. Same goes for the rest of you.’

‘But we can ask around, yeah?’ said Jessica. ‘Talk to the kids here? They might know something.’

‘I’d rather you didn’t go pestering everyone. Let Jester talk to them.’

‘Don’t be a dick,’ said DogNut, standing up. ‘You can’t stop us talking to people.’

David made an empty-hands gesture. DogNut gave him a dirty look in return and stormed off down the steps and over to a group of kids who were weeding one of the vegetable patches. As he approached them, they stopped what they were doing and stood up, wiping their hands on their trousers.

‘We’re looking for some friends,’ he said, slightly more aggressively than he’d wanted. ‘Any of you know where they might be? David says we got to go through him, but …’

A thin girl with a muddy face and hands glanced over at David before speaking. DogNut saw him shake his head. ‘If David says he doesn’t know anything, then neither do we,’ she said.

‘That’s right,’ said the girl next to her. ‘We can’t really help you.’

DogNut swore and went over to the next group, but got the same response. Nobody was willing to talk to him. After a few minutes he gave up and looked back towards the terrace where David was watching him with a self-satisfied expression.

The two of them locked stares. DogNut was fuming, his chest rising and falling. David had made him look like an idiot.

And then the tense mood was broken by a girl running out of the building, laughing and shouting. She ran straight into Al’s arms and they hugged each other, both in floods of tears. DogNut tried to picture himself and Brooke hugging like that, her crying into his shoulder, him stroking her hair …

Somehow the picture never quite came into focus. They were neither of them the blubbing, hugging type. For the hundredth time he wondered where she was and what she might be doing.

Each step closer seemed to take him two steps further away.

13

‘Listen, why don’t you all have something to eat and then stay here for the night?’

It was a moment before Courtney realized that David was talking to her. DogNut was still down among the vegetable growers looking sulky and cross. David was standing with his arms folded, watching him.

‘We need to move on,’ Courtney said flatly.

‘But where will you go?’

‘That’s not your problem.’

David turned to her, unfolded his arms and smiled.

‘I’m sorry we got off to a bad start. I’ve no argument with you. It was Brooke and the others who let me down. Maybe I’ve come across a bit angry. I’m sorry about that. I’ll calm down. It was just … hearing Brooke’s name brought up some bad memories for me.’

‘She was my best mate.’

‘I know. Please don’t think that I don’t care.’

‘Whatever. I’m going to find her.’

‘Yes, I appreciate that, but you can’t just go wandering around out there. I would have thought that what happened to you on the way here would have shown you how dangerous it is on the streets still. Can I make a suggestion?’

‘OK …’

‘Why not stay here with us for a while? Not just tonight. We’ve plenty of food and water and it’s very safe here.’

‘Yeah, but I just said I want to –’

‘Let me finish.’

‘Sorry.’

‘I’ll send Jester out. He has contacts everywhere. He knows these streets really well. If anyone can track Brooke down, it’s him.’

‘Maybe …’ The thought of staying at the palace for a while, resting, eating well, not being scared, being alone with DogNut with no Brooke around to spoil things …

‘I thought you said you didn’t want nothing to do with her?’

‘I can be a grown-up about it,’ said David, and he smiled. ‘Actually, sorry, no, bad choice of metaphor. Not a grown-up, but you know what I mean. Maybe it’s time I forgave her, moved on. Or maybe seeing these two reunited has made me go all gooey inside.’

David nodded towards where Al and his sister Maria were sitting on the grass, excitedly chatting away to each other as they caught up on all that had happened in the last year.

‘At least stay the night, anyway,’ said David. ‘We can offer you better food than you’ll have tasted since before the disaster. You can have a wash, get some clean clothes.’ He looked pointedly at Courtney’s jeans, stained dark where she had wet herself.

Courtney blushed and stared at a patch of grass, feeling about three years old.

‘In any case,’ said David, ‘get rested, think about things. We’ll talk again at dinner.’ He moved in closer and spoke quietly to Courtney, fixing her with his pale clear eyes. ‘Maybe you don’t really want to look for Brooke. Yeah? Maybe that’s the past? You don’t necessarily want to hold on to it. This is the future. Here in the palace. And we need children like you – tough and experienced, with a good understanding of how things are out there. You’d fit in really well here, Courtney – you could make a good life.’

‘I’ll think about it.’

‘Do that.’

David walked away a few paces, stopped and turned round.

‘Whatever happens,’ he said. ‘You will stay here tonight.’

‘Oh, but –’

‘It’s the safest thing for you.’

David left them to it and went inside. Courtney was confused. She needed to talk to DogNut, but when she looked for him he was gone.

14

The gardens at the palace were ringed by tall trees, so that standing by the lake in the centre you could imagine you were deep in the countryside, especially now that there were no sounds of cars or aeroplanes to spoil the illusion.

While David had been distracted talking to Courtney, DogNut had ducked into the shadow of the trees and was now skirting the outer wall. If for some reason David tried to keep them there, it was worth knowing whether there was any easy way out.

It wasn’t looking good.

The wall itself was about five metres high and topped by rotating steel spikes. Above the spikes there stretched another couple of metres of barbed wire that sloped outwards towards the road on the other side.

The walls had been designed to keep people out. After all this had been a royal palace, the Queen’s home in London. DogNut had heard tales of nutters breaking in, but it was still a pretty impregnable fortress. And these walls could also, of course, keep people in.

Worse still, some of David’s guards seemed to be patrolling the perimeter. DogNut had seen one a couple of minutes ago. His bright red blazer had given him away. DogNut had easily hidden behind a tree until the boy had wandered past. Despite the rifle slung over his shoulders, he didn’t look like he was taking his job very seriously, and why should he? No sickos could scale that wall from the outside. This was all just for show, to give the other kids a feeling of security.

Or was there something more to it? DogNut wondered how many of the kids might be being held here against their will, like the hunters had said.

It was almost like being in some kind of concentration camp.

‘Oi!’

Dammit. DogNut had missed a second guard, who had sneaked up on him from behind and was aiming his rifle at his belly. DogNut smiled at him.

‘A’right?’

‘You shouldn’t be back here.’

‘Why?’

‘David says so.’

‘Why?’

‘It’s dangerous.’

‘Why?’

The boy lowered his gun and shrugged, evidently feeling a bit silly. He had a big nose and didn’t look the fighting type.

‘Don’t you get bored doing that?’ DogNut asked him.