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‘She doesn’t deserve to,’ says Non-Lucas, who seems to have all the sporting aggression of our Lucas but none of the gentility or hidden insecurities. ‘None of them
deserve anything.’

I’m not listening, because I really can’t believe that my dad is about to somehow reappear in my life. Only it won’t be my father, it’ll be hers. Rev Two’s.

‘Tell your friends to come out.’ Other-Johnson speaks so softly I no longer know if his voice is in my head or not.

I turn back in the direction of the skip, praying that Billie and Johnson are long gone by now. But I’m damned if I’m going to do what Other-Johnson wants.

‘Run!’ I yell. ‘Get out of here!’

‘Lucas,’ Other-Johnson says. ‘They’re over there.’ He points lazily and Non-Lucas gets ready to leap across the courtyard when I hear an angel calling my name.

But it’s not really an angel.

It’s the Ape.

The one and only Ape.

Our Ape.
My
Ape.

He’s in a souped-up four-door saloon and he’s going too fast to stop. But stopping isn’t on his mind as he ploughs straight into Non-Lucas, knocking him tumbling back into a
coffee shop.

The Ape hits the brakes and spins the car round and, as the rubber on the car tyres squeals, he accelerates and aims directly at Rev Two and Another-Billie. Other-Johnson sees what is happening
and immediately lets go of me as he turns and tries to yank the Ape’s mind out of his body.

At least I think that’s what he tries to do because he clutches his temples and strains with all his might to grab the Ape’s brain.

But even I know he’s wasting his time. The Ape runs on instinct – he doesn’t use his brain like anyone else. He’s more like an animal who acts without thought or
conscience. So Other-Johnson’s mind control, if that’s what he’s attempting, can’t affect him, so as much as I hate to see it, the car hits Rev Two and knocks her some ten
metres backwards through the air.

Other-Johnson cries out. ‘Rev!’

He is stricken as he races for her while the Ape spins the wheel again and roars towards Another-Billie, who is in some sort of trance as she tries to reanimate my father, or whoever he is. She
doesn’t seem to notice the car coming towards her, until the Ape throws open the driver’s door and smashes her with it.

‘Rev!’ I turn and see my Johnson running towards me.

But Other-Johnson is screaming the very same thing. ‘Rev!’

They’re both shouting. Both trying to save . . . me.

Non-Lucas is already back on his feet and there is something truly athletic and gorgeous about his rubbery sinewy movement as he leaps through the air and lands on the bonnet of the Ape’s
car.

But that doesn’t stop the Ape. Instead he jumps on the brakes and Non-Lucas’s momentum pitches him clear over the roof of the car. I swear I hear the Ape laughing as he roars up
beside me and Johnson and brings the car to a halt within centimetres of us.

‘Taxi?’

Johnson yanks open the rear door and all but throws me inside.

‘Billie’s by the skip,’ Johnson says to the Ape as he leaps into the passenger seat.

The Ape yanks the wheel hard left and, as he does, we come face to face with Non-Lucas, who leaps back over the car and lands directly in front of us.

‘Doesn’t he ever stay dead?’ The Ape’s face scrunches up tight as he reaches a big fat hand into the back seat, and I realise his new weapon is beside me. Only it looks
exactly the same as the old weapon to me.

Non-Lucas leaps towards us and crashes through the windscreen, talons glinting, teeth pointed and vicious. But the Ape is fearless.

‘Soft spot!’ he yells and drives his weapon straight into Non-Lucas’s throat. Non-Lucas suddenly goes stiff and then slumps dramatically half in the car and half on the bonnet.
The Ape reverses at speed while trying to wrestle his weapon out of Non-Lucas’s throat.

Johnson grabs for the weapon. ‘I got it,’ he says. ‘You just watch where we’re—’

There’s an almighty shunt as the Ape reverses us all the way into the side of the skip. I swear my neck almost snaps as I am hurled violently forward and then back. Johnson would have gone
through the windscreen if it wasn’t for Non-Lucas blocking the way. The Ape smashes his chest into the steering wheel and probably for the first time in his life he cries out in pain.

I look past Johnson and see Other-Johnson cradling the battered Rev Two. Other-Billie gets to her feet and shaking off the impact with the car door she heads towards them. Other-Johnson’s
mind momentarily finds me and he talks to me again.

‘I’m coming for you, Rev.’

The rear door opens and our Billie clambers in.

‘Drive!’ Johnson cries.

The Ape has been winded and feels his chest. Johnson tries to cajole him.

‘C’mon, Ape, we need you.’

The Ape tries to pull himself together despite the agony he is in. He checks in the rear-view and finds Billie looking back at him.

‘Go, Ape, go,’ she urges.

The Ape ignores the pain, engages drive and pulls away. Non-Lucas slides off the front of the bonnet and I feel the jarring jolt as the Ape drives right over him.

‘Rocky road.’ He grimaces as we pull away from the square. I know he is in agony because he does his best to swerve round any potholes or drains in the road. Every time he hits one,
though, I notice him wince.

I look back and see Rev Two returning to full health courtesy of Another-Billie who looks pale and weak after her efforts. Then I see Other-Johnson gazing at us and I know we’re definitely
in a war now and we’re up against beings that are not only far superior, but that also don’t stay dead for long.

‘Rev?’
Other-Johnson’s voice comes back into my head. This must be the airwave he was talking about.

‘Yeah?’ I automatically say it out loud. Billie looks at me quizzically.

‘
We’re going to find you.’

‘It doesn’t have to be like this,’ I whisper, ‘it really doesn’t.’

‘We need your Moth,’
he says
.

I don’t understand.

‘You killed ours so now we need yours. If anyone can work out what’s in your dad’s thesis, then he can.’

‘He’ll know how to get us back home?’

‘Not you. Us,’
he says, then I hear him sigh.
‘I’m really sorry, Rev. But what a kiss, eh?’

Before I can answer, Other-Johnson disappears from my mind and I wonder if it’s because we’re too far away for him to reach me – we must have driven a mile already at the speed
Ape’s going. I hope so, otherwise we will never be able to hide. Or plan. Or surprise them. They are holding all the cards and my instinct is to run. But as I look at the big thick hairy neck
of the Ape sitting in front of me, and Johnson next to him, I begin to think that with them we might have a chance.

An angel came
, I think to myself,
and the angel was called the Ape.

Billie sits back in her seat, frustrated.

‘So, you didn’t get the papers,’ she says, a little too sharply. I know we’re officially in a state of mass panic and desperation but this harshness is something I
haven’t heard in her before and it’s beginning to worry me.

‘Hey, I tried my best,’ I tell her. ‘I was working on him.’

‘Guess it was difficult to think when you’ve got a mouthful of tongue,’ she responds.

‘Someone do tongue?’ asks the Ape.

‘I was interrogating Johnson. The other Johnson,’ I tell him, but really I’m telling Johnson, who is sitting silently in the front.

‘With your tongue?’ the Ape says.

‘I was playing along with him.’

‘You want to interrogate me?’ The Ape’s eyes find me in the rear-view. ‘Ask me anything.’

I don’t bother with a response because it seems that every time the Ape does something good he goes and ruins it with his utter crassness.

‘So you had your tongue in Other-Johnson’s mouth?’ says the Ape again and I wish he’d shut up because Johnson is being too quiet.

‘I was getting information.’ My voice is small and tired.

‘And what did you learn from kissing him?’ asks Billie. I know that she’s sensed Johnson’s mood and is subtly trying to make it worse.

‘Nothing.’

‘Not even when he put his hand under your top?’

Johnson shifts uncomfortably in his seat.

‘I don’t remember that,’ I say quietly.

‘He copped a feel? Yowza!’

‘He could read my mind, put thoughts in there. I think I was in a trance.’ I try my best to explain and wish Johnson would turn around and say something to me. ‘It was mind
control.’

‘But he copped a feel?’

‘I don’t know.’ I’m sure they all know I’m lying because I can feel myself glowing in embarrassment.

‘He must have said something.’ Finally Johnson speaks, but he is staring ahead, not looking at me.

‘Just that he was sorry.’

‘For groping you?’ asks Billie, just in case anyone forgets.

‘No, I think he was sorry about what’s about to happen,’ I add as solemnly as I can. ‘They’re going to find us, they’re going to take the Moth and
they’re going to leave the rest of us here – or worse.’

‘What does he mean – here? We’re from here.’

‘I don’t think we are,’ I say.

‘So they want our Moth—’ begins Johnson.

‘Because we killed their Moth,’ I tell him. ‘They think he’ll know from my dad’s writings what’s happened. They want him to take them back to wherever they
came from.’

‘That’s OK, isn’t it?’ Billie seems positive now. ‘He does that, they go home, we’re safe.’

‘But we need him to take us home.’

‘This is home!’ Billie adds. Vehemently.

‘Johnson said it wasn’t.’

‘I did?”

‘I mean Other-Johnson said it.’

‘So where are we?’ Billie asks.

‘I don’t know, but they cannot get hold of the Moth – we can’t let that happen.’

‘No way it can. Not now I’ve got a new weapon,’ boasts the Ape, who winces again. I’m starting to worry that he might have broken some ribs.

‘It’s the same weapon,’ I say.

‘This is way different. Old one had two carving knives attached to it but this one – this has three! It’s the big three-pointer.’

I’m too frazzled to argue as Johnson finally turns and looks at me. ‘So they’ve got the thesis but we’ve got the Moth.’

I nod.

Johnson’s eyes linger on me as he weighs me up, probably thinking all sorts of negative things about me now. ‘We need to find the others, regroup,’ he says.

‘They were on a train the last—’ Billie is about to say more when I cut in.

‘Don’t say a word! Just don’t. Other-Johnson was in my head – he could still be there.’

‘That’s a big head,’ says the Ape.

‘If we’re going to meet the others then arrange it without me hearing or knowing.’

‘We’re miles away from him,’ Billie says.

‘I just want to be safe. I want us all to be safe.’

Johnson weighs this up and then agrees. ‘I’ll text GG. We’ll drive to wherever they are.’

‘Better blindfold Rev, then,’ says Billie, and there’s something about the way she says this that makes it sound like it really appeals to her. ‘If he can really get
inside Rev so easily, then it’s best she doesn’t see where we’re heading.’

‘Or hear it,’ adds Johnson.

‘Yeah, we’ll plug your ears, Rev.’

‘Maybe gag her as well,’ the Ape suggests.

‘Excuse me?’ I aim an angry look at the Ape’s giant square lump of head.

‘Could throw her in the boot.’ Billie shrugs. It isn’t the fact that she suggests it that upsets me, it’s more that she didn’t say we could
put
her in the
boot, or
lay
her in the boot gently, it was
throw
her in, as if I was a suitcase or something. Our friendship is starting to show some alarming cracks.

‘I’m not going in the boot,’ I tell her forcefully, then turn and look out of the window and realise we must have already covered over six miles because we’re about to
enter a long well-lit tunnel that is about a quarter of the way towards the outskirts of London. I like the idea of getting to the city, if only because there are a million places to hide.

We fall silent for a while and I watch the overhead lights built into the tunnel bouncing off the windscreen. They start to hypnotise me and I gently close my eyes. I tell myself that I can rest
for a while in the safety of the car.

‘Hang on a sec,’ says Billie abruptly.

I open my eyes but she stalls a little and won’t meet my eyes. ‘No, actually, it doesn’t matter.’

‘What doesn’t matter?’

‘Nothing.’ Billie looks away from me and clearly it does matter.

‘Billie?’

‘I’m not sure. I had a thought . . . but never mind,’ she says and turns away so she doesn’t have to look at me. She stares out of the window and then sniffles as if
she’s trying not to cry.

‘Bill,’ I say. ‘You all right?’

Billie nods her head, but after a moment she shakes her head. ‘No . . .’

Johnson looks back at us and he is as confused as I am.

‘Billie?’ he asks.

She sniffles again, but doesn’t answer.

‘You’re spooking me now,’ I say to her.

Finally she turns and I can see that tears are welling in her eyes. ‘We can’t take you with us.’