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Ash returned a few minutes later and guided Alice through double swing doors into an empty corridor. Their shoes echoed a symphony of squeaks off the bare walls as they paced towards an elevator bank. Ash pressed the ‘up’ button and a red light illuminated around it. She made wide eyes at Alice.

“Looks like it’s going to be a busy shift tonight.”

“I don’t know how you do it.”

Ash shrugged. “I don’t suppose it’s for everyone, but I knew what I was getting myself into. I love the thrill of it. It’s totally unpredictable, from sewing a finger back on to literally saving a life. Just helping people and making a difference gives me such a rush.”

“I could think of better ways to get a rush.” Alice raised her eyebrows, then internally kicked herself for flirtingagain,but this time, instead of being abashed, Ash’s lips quirked into her signature grin. They locked eyes for a moment until a thought seemed to snap Ash’s attention away and she tapped the pockets of her parka.

“Oh, talking of helping people…” Ash unzipped the left pocket and pulled out a mobile phone, which she held out to Alice. “You lost your phone, and this is an old one I had in a drawer at home. You’ll need to pick up a SIM card, but I thought it might do you for now, until you get sorted.”

Alice stared at the device in Ash’s hand, lost for words… for once.

“Shit. I’ve overstepped, haven’t I?”

“No, it’s just?—”

Ash’s eyes popped. “Oh God, Fran and the tracking?”

Alice nodded. “Yeah, she bought me my last phone and set it all up. I guess that’s how she...”

“Alice, I wouldn’t do that. I’m not a creep… I mean, it isn’t a normal thing to do, is it? It’s been factory reset, look.” Ash held up the device with its screen looping on the set-up instructions.

“You’re being so kind to me, and you don’t even know me. And what you do know doesn’t exactly give the best impression.” Alice bowed her head.

Ash stepped closer and puffed out a breath. “What Iknowis that you stopped to help someone else when you were in distress yourself. And I know that you’re coming out of a difficult… complicated relationship, and you’re being really brave about it. You’re doing your best, Alice.”

Ash’s words pulled a smile from her.

“Well, if you don’t mind me borrowing your old phone, it’d really help me out.”

As she took the phone from Ash’s proffered hand, their fingers brushed, and a giddying fizz of excitement bubbled through Alice.Did Ash feel that too?

Alice looked up and met the captivating depth of Ash’s dark brown eyes, noticing for the first time the amber flecks in her irises.

Ash licked her lips and spoke in an almost-whisper. “Alice, I?—”

The elevator clunked onto their floor, and with ading, the metal doors rolled open.

“Finally,” Ash said, stepping into the bright metal box, leaving Alice wondering what she’d been about to say for the second time in a day.

1968

THE CHANCE TO ESCAPE

Daylight lasered through the split in the mothy brown curtains and I buried my face into the pillow, inhaling my own smell. Over the last few months I’d noticed a change in my scent; sometimes musty, sometimes sour, never particularly pleasant. Upon further examination, I discovered clusters of wiry dark hairs sprouting under my armpits and, more disturbingly, in other places. When I’d asked Mum about it, she just chuckled her soft, buttery laugh, kissed my forehead and said, “Georgie-boy, you’re nearly fourteen. You’re turning into a man. A little extra hair will soon be the least of your worries.”

And she wasn’t wrong.

Pyg stirred at the foot of my bed. I patted the blanket, and she crawled low, like a ninja, along the bare floorboards and hopped up next to me. Her wet nose nuzzled at my arm until her head poked through from under my smelly armpit.

“Morning, girl.” My voice rasped with sleep, but at least it came out low and not squeaky like it often did lately. Pyg leaned in as I scratched her ears, her bushy tail thumping on the bedspread like a bass drum.

Propping myself up on my elbows, I frowned at the empty, unmade bed across the room.

“Where’s Bernie, eh?” I whispered.

Pyg cocked her head.