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‘Please, terrifying saviour,’ Maria said, ‘tell me we’ve reached Italy.’

‘Fortunately for you.’ Ducos tucked the binoculars back into her body warmer. ‘Let’s keep moving.’

Verca looked with concern at Maria, who was pouring sweat. ‘How much farther?’

‘Half an hour.’ Ducos nodded to where our path thinned into a steep trail, winding down the slopes like thread. ‘I would let you rest, but we need to get clear of this pass as soon as possible, for reasons I presume are apparent.’

She started down the trail, her rifle protruding from its holster on her back. Maria nodded to Verca.

‘Harald made you drink something,’ Maria said to me as we pressed on. ‘What was it?’

‘It was alysoplasm. Buzzer blood,’ I said. ‘It cuts you off from the æther for a while.’

‘Of course it does. There is no end to the misery.’ She sighed. ‘I really can’t wait for today to be over.’

Pine trees flanked the lower stretches of the trail. As soon as we had that cover, I could breathe a little easier. Ducos and I had shoved two bodies into the lake, but it wouldn’t be long until the patrols found Harald. His surviving associates would have alerted Grapevine.

I was already out of my depth out here. Two groups had come after me in the space of a week, and I’d never heard of either of them.

Ducos led us to a black vehicle in a car park for hikers. She unpacked some emergency medical supplies while Verca helped Maria into the back.

‘Try not to let her fall asleep,’ Ducos said. Maria was now almost white in the face, hair stuck to her brow. ‘Lie her across the seats, and maintain pressure on either side of the knife. We’ll need to keep her stable until we get to headquarters.’

Ducos did as much as she could for Maria, bandaging around the knife. Once the blade was secure and the wound padded, she drove out of the valley and on to a long motorway, which stretched beneath a sun-bleached sky. Verca applied pressure and fought to keep Maria awake, but despite her best efforts, Maria drifted into a fitful sleep.

‘Don’t panic,’ Ducos said. ‘There is no point in panicking.’

Verca nodded, swallowing. ‘How long before we reach headquarters?’

‘Three hours. She’ll be fine,’ Ducos said, seeing our faces. ‘Keep her warm, and don’t pull the knife out.’

‘She isn’t a fugitive in Italy,’ I said. ‘Can we not take her to a hospital?’

‘I wouldn’t risk it.’

Ducos drove over a river. Maria made a sound of discomfort, her eyes restless beneath their lids.

I watched the mountains from a safe distance. My body was cold and bruised from the hike. After a while, I nodded off, which was clearly going to be a regular occurrence for a while. It was only when Ducos opened her window that I woke to the sound of blustering wind. Now we were out of the Alps, she had taken off her bodywarmer and sweater.

The æther prickled at my perception, like sensation returning to a dead arm. I sat up.

‘You had an eventful night,’ Ducos said. ‘What happened?’

‘You first,’ I said. ‘Why aren’t you in Paris?’

The wind blew her dark hair, showing a recent scar near her temple.

‘After the airstrikes, I believed Stéphane and I were the only surviving members of Mannequin. We were pulled out of Scion, and the sub-network was classified as non-operational. Given my years of long service, I was promoted to Command, despite the loss of three agents,’ she said. ‘But I couldn’t stop thinking about Paris. At first, I presumed it was your auxiliary who betrayed us, but your underworld contacts remained safe in their usual hideouts. Warden knew about those places. Why didn’t he tell Scion?’

We had been thinking along the same lines.

‘I began to suspect he wasn’t the leak,’ she said, ‘but someone was. I started combing through every record, every detail, leaving no stone unturned. It wasn’t until late August that I noticed a clue I had missed for months. Cordier had once requested a tracking unit to monitor an informant, which I had approved. I checked if the unit had ever been activated.’

‘Had it?’

‘A week before the airstrikes. After her sudden disappearance.’ She changed lanes. ‘I assembled a team to analyse its available data. It had been in several countries. I watched it move to Poland, and then to Czechia. It arrived there on the tenth of September.’

‘It’s … in me?’