Culham and Colombo, Sri Lanka

'Ooof!'  Judy's head falls forward and hits the headrest of the seat in front of her.

'Are you all right, Judy?' Guilietta asks.

'Yes, love; sorry.  Just a bit startled.  I must have dropped off.'

'You're very sleepy today.'

'I was up all last night.  Most of the night before, too'

'Talking to Doctor Will?'

'Yes.'  Turning to the child sitting next to her on the back seat: 'You don't miss much, do you?'

'What do you mean?'

'Nothing.  What are Doctor Will and Carlo doing now?'

'Listen and you'll see.'

'Now then.  Judy, Mary; are you still there?'

'Yes.'

'Yes.'

'Right.  Watch this, ' Will grins broadly. 'We're going to deploy our secret weapon.'

'Go on.  You're longing for me to ask.  What is our secret weapon?'

'Kirjava.  I don't suppose for a moment the burglar alarms here were set up to detect anyone quite as aethereal as her.'

'Oh…'

'Yes!'

'Does she know what she's looking for?'

'Who's "she"?  I have a name, you know.  And yes, I do.'

'We'll start off by finding out where the Geodesics Ltd offices are.  There'll be a sign on the door, or something like that.'

'Please, Judy.  Do not make things worse by asking me if I can read!'

'I wouldn't dream of it.  Will; you and Kirjava really are a pair, aren't you?'

Mary:  'You're learning!'

'Carlo, let's make another cut.  This time, we'll aim to go about three meters south, so we're inside the building.'

Giancarlo slices space open with the Knife and he and Will pass through the window into the world of the pink sun.  Half a minute later, they reappear in the main staircase lobby.  Again, Will hits his phone's redial button.

'Online, everyone?'

'Mary here.'

'Carlo.  Can I talk to Carlo?'

'Sorry, Guili.  We're busy.  Later.

'Kir, listen.  There will be doors that you won't be able to open.  They'll be locked, or on cardkey access.  If you get stuck, tell me.  We'll find you and use the Knife to get through them.

'Take care!'

Tail erect, Kirjava stalks the silent corridors of the complex, stealthy and unseen.

'What are they doing now?'

'Nothing, it looks like.  Just standing there'

'Keep an eye on all the screens.  They could make another jump any time.'

'OK.  There they… Shit!  They disappeared again!'

'Look, look, look…  There!  In the main lobby.  Now what are they doing?'

The monitor shows Will and Giancarlo sitting at the bottom of the staircase.

'This doesn't make any sense.  We know they've got that knife you told me about.  That's how they're skipping through walls and thin air. But why the hell are they just sitting around doing nothing?'

'I don't know.  Right now, I don't care.  I don't think it matters.'

'You told me that we were only supposed to observe Parry, not go after him.  The message said.'

A flash of anger crosses Mr Greaves' face.  'Never mind what the fucking message said. What matters is getting hold of that knife.  If we get it, out job's done and we can shut down Geodesics tomorrow.'

'I wouldn't mind.  This place is a dump.  Just the knife?'

'No.  We need the guy who's carrying it too.  It'll only work for him.'

'You mean, he'll only make the openings for us if we're nice to him?'

'Or if we've got an angle.'

'So we make it unpleasant for him if he doesn't help us?'

'Or pleasant.  Doesn't matter, as long as the bastard does his bit.'

'What's the plan, then?'  Miss Morley is well known throughout the Latrom Foundation for her efficiency in organisation and management.  The actual work, however, she prefers to leave for others to do.

'That knife's a killer.  We can't go for him while he's holding it.  It's got to be something else.'

'Would he… cooperate if he was made an offer?'

'That he couldn't refuse?  No, I don't think so.  Like I said, we need an angle.'

'Suppose we split them up?  Get the one without the knife.  Use him as a hostage.'

'Parry?  I suppose it might work.  Would the other one care if we damaged Parry a bit?'

'Dunno.  Can't tell.'

'We'd better think of something soon, or they'll disappear again and we'll lose them altogether.'

'Ooof!'

Judy looks up, blinking.  Hell!  Fell asleep again!

'Sorry, Guili.'

'Guili?'

Oh my God!  The open car door swings slowly to and fro in the soft night air.

Down the side of the road towards the JET complex runs Guilietta Bellini, her lightly shod feet pattering along the footpath.  Why wouldn't Doctor Will let me talk to Carlo?  Is there something the matter and they're not telling me?  She passes by the perimeter fence, seeing nobody, and reaches the side gate, which is shut and padlocked.

Neither gates nor padlocks can stop a determined eight year old.  Guilietta swarms up the bars of the gate, deftly avoids cutting herself on the barbed wire that is coiled in wide loops over the top of it and lightly drops down to the pathway on the other side.  She runs towards a side entrance door and bangs hard on the glass.

'Carlo!  Carlo!'

Judy speaks urgently into her phone.  'Will, Mary!  Help!  Oh God, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.'  She is close to tears.

'Slow down.'  Mary looks closely at her TV screen which has been showing her a static picture of the lobby and main stairway of the complex for the last ten minutes while Kirjava has been exploring the building.  'What's wrong?'

'Go on, Judy.  Take it slowly.  What's happened?'

Giancarlo sees Will speaking urgently into his headset.  What's wrong with Judy?  What's happened?  No, it can't be…

'I'm sorry.  I was tired… and I must have dozed off.  Guili's gone.  I've no idea where.'

'Look! There's another one of them!'  Miss Morley points to a screen at the far right of the bank of monitors.  Guilietta's diminutive figure can be seen jumping up and down, her fists knocking against the door.

'Now what do we have here?  That's a damn sight more like it!'  Mr Greaves leaps to his feet, his swivel chair skidding to the back of the room and colliding with a bank of filing cabinets with a loud metallic crash.  He runs out of the room and down the stairs outside.

Miss Morley smiles grimly.  This child is a gift to them. It matters little whether she is connected with the intruders or not.  It is difficult to imagine how anybody will be able to refuse to do as they are told once Greaves and she have the girl in their power.  Or be able to endure for long unmoved her pleas for mercy.

Her heart thumping and her mind numbed by of an overwhelming feeling of dread Judy grabs her phone and, barely stopping to shut the Golf's doors behind her, sprints out of the pub car park towards the JET complex.