Ignoring Paul’s protests DogNut had taken out the cigarette lighter he always carried with him and set light to the brazier, explaining that they couldn’t wait all day for Robbie to get back. Paul had tutted and fretted and moaned as the junk caught light and the smoke crawled up into the clear sky. A couple of runners had been sent out to fetch Robbie, but DogNut figured once he saw the beacon smoke he’d come back quick enough. DogNut was actually glad Robbie hadn’t been there to start with. It helped his plan.

Apart from the usual nightmare, he’d slept well. Long and deep. And now felt reasonably refreshed. Ready to face the Collector again. He told himself that if he took enough fighters it would be easy. First thing in the morning, confused by the bright sun, the big sicko would be a pushover. A lot of the kids in the museum wanted to help Paul get revenge for the death of his sister, but DogNut only wanted to take the best of them. Too many and they’d just get in the way of each other and make it dangerous. Most of these kids barely left the museum, unless it was to go and work in nearby vegetable patches, and weren’t street tough. It had been like picking a team for a school football match. DogNut had turned away those kids that didn’t look up to it.

Marco and Felix were coming. They reckoned they had unfinished business with the Collector and wanted to stick by DogNut. Finn was reluctantly staying behind. He knew he wasn’t much use until his arm healed. Courtney had been in a panic, swaying one way and then the other, not sure if she could face going back to that awful place, but not wanting to look like a wimp in front of DogNut. Even now, standing here with her spear at the ready, she still didn’t know if she was going to go with the war party when they set off.

She watched as DogNut strode into the middle of the floor and took charge.

‘OK!’ he shouted. ‘Is everyone ready?’

There were mumbles from the kids and they shuffled into some kind of formation. Paul went and stood by DogNut, trying to look hard and failing. He obviously liked to dress all in black, with his roll-neck jumper, black denim jacket and matching jeans. They matched his hair, and with his long thin arms and legs he looked like some kind of insect.

‘If Robbie don’t get back soon, we’ll go without him,’ said DogNut.

Paul sighed, blowing out his breath to ease his tension. ‘Are you sure we shouldn’t wait for him, whatever?’ he asked. ‘He’s got some of our best fighters with him.’ He was very pale, made worse by his black outfit. His resolve of the night before, his determination to go and kill the Collector, was slipping away. He looked to Courtney like he’d been up half the night. Probably crying. Trying to accept that his sister was dead. The reality of being out on the streets and confronting a sicko, maybe killing him, was beginning to sink in.

‘Don’t worry,’ said DogNut. ‘We’ll hang on a bit longer. The Collector is one dangerous grown-up. When we go in there, we want to make sure of it. Kill the bastard. You can stick his head on a pole if you like. But remember there ain’t just him to worry about. There were bare sickos around last night. They’ll mostly have crawled away to their sleeping holes, but they still out there and we don’t want to forget it. I ain’t waiting all day, though. Sun’s out nice and bright now, and they don’t like that. Early morning he’ll be asleep, and his defences will be down. We want to get in there fast and get back here fast.’

‘OK.’

DogNut mock-punched Paul. ‘You’ll be OK, blood. Don’t fret.’

Courtney wandered off to the side and sat down on a bench, too nervous to speak to anyone. She stared at some kind of giant fossilized tortoise and prayed that DogNut would change his mind and give up on the idea of killing the sicko. She looked round as Brooke came down the wide stairs at the back of the hall past the statue of Charles Darwin. She looked so different with her short brown hair and old-fashioned dress. She had changed more than Courtney had expected in a year. She could be five years older, ten even. She headed for DogNut, who started talking at her, rattling off the words and dancing from one foot to the other. Brooke didn’t look too happy. Kept turning away and fiddling with her hair.

Courtney held back for a while then decided she’d better go and see what Brooke had to say.

‘You can’t just come in here and stir things up, Donut,’ Brooke was saying as Courtney came over.

‘I ain’t stirring,’ DogNut protested. ‘But we got to move fast if we want to kill the sicko. He might move on. And I mean, you know, maybe Olivia’s still alive.’

Courtney and DogNut both knew that wasn’t a possibility. This was all part of DogNut’s game plan. Brooke wasn’t to know that, however. She changed her tone.

‘Yeah … maybe. OK, I see your point. Thing is, you only just got here. I was gonna show you things this morning, introduce you to some more people.’

‘Laters,’ said DogNut. ‘When we back. OK? Plenty of time.’

‘What if you don’t come back?’

‘I’ll be back!’ said DogNut, impersonating the Terminator. ‘Look. We getting an army together here.’

‘What if you get some of my lot killed?’

‘I’ll look after them good. Don’t you worry. I ain’t stepping on nobody’s toes. I’m doing this for Paul.’

‘Are you?’

‘Course I am. So you gonna come with us?’

‘Well …’ Brooke thought about it. Didn’t look too keen on the idea and before she could make a decision Courtney butted in.

‘It’s pretty dangerous out there if you ain’t used to it,’ she said. ‘Nobody will think bad of you if you don’t come. You never knew Olivia, like I did.’

‘You going?’ Brooke asked.

Courtney shrugged, still not sure.

‘See, I’m not one of the fighters,’ said Brooke. ‘I got more important things to do here.’

‘I’m a fighter,’ said Courtney, standing taller and swinging her spear. God, she hoped that DogNut was taking this in. If she was going to put her neck on the line again, she wanted to make sure that DogNut was impressed.

‘You coming for sure then?’ DogNut asked.

‘Yeah, why not? I ain’t afraid.’

‘My gyal!’ said DogNut, and he put his arm round her and gave her a squeeze.

Before any of them could say anything else there were voices and movement from the main doors and a group of boys stepped in out of the light. They hurried across the atrium to the knot of waiting kids. Robbie was at their head, leather jacket tightly zipped, looking none too happy.

‘What’s going on?’ he asked, his gelled hair bristling.

‘What’s it look like?’ said DogNut. ‘We going on a sicko hunt.’

‘Who says?’

DogNut turned to Paul. ‘You tell him, blood,’ he said. ‘This is your party.’

Paul took Robbie aside and explained what was happening. As they talked, Robbie kept throwing looks over to DogNut. Like Brooke, he wasn’t happy that an outsider had come in and was shaking things up. Finally he came back and stood slightly too close to DogNut. His attempt to appear menacing didn’t quite come off as his broken nose only came up to DogNut’s chin.

‘You ain’t in charge here, Doggo,’ he said.

‘That’s right.’ DogNut shrugged and held Robbie’s gaze. ‘The nerds are.’

Robbie paused for a moment, weighing DogNut’s pointed words.

‘They look after all the boring crap,’ he said at last. ‘But anything to do with security goes through me.’

‘Yeah, I know that.’ DogNut offered Robbie a friendly smile. ‘But you wasn’t here so I had to start putting something together. Time is tick-tick-ticking away, soldier. You gonna come then?’

‘Course I’m gonna come.’

‘Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go.’

30

As the kids marched out of the museum gates into the street, they bumped into Ryan and his hunters coming from the west along the Cromwell Road with their dogs. Compared to the kids in the museum Ryan’s gang looked even more wild and fierce than they’d done before. Dressed in their furs and leathery masks, heavily armed and battle scarred, they were a complete contrast to the elegantly dressed museum kids, who carried clubs and knives mostly. Although one or two, like Robbie, had lightweight swords hanging at their belts in fancy ornamental scabbards.