Winter is here

Half an hour later, with the pressure in his head eased somewhat, Jean-Claude weighed up the risks of going to the Lanes’ address to find Emma himself. He decided the stakes were too high. He mustn’t give the designers even a hint of where she might be.

The stentorian notes of the Ride Of The Valkyries rang out from his mobile, letting him know he had forgotten to turn off the divert from his work phone. It always made him think of winter and female warriors on winged horses racing through a stormy sky, and went someway to enlivening his somewhat mundane existence at the facility. Worrying that something had happened in the Nurture Unit, he snatched it up and pressed it to his ear.

‘Yes, hullo, Jean-Claude speaking.’

‘I’m glad I caught you Mr Durand. I wasn’t sure you’d be there on a Sunday.’

‘Who is this?’

‘It’s George Lane here. We ordered a Mark 16 from you recently. We’re in Sevenoaks. I’m sorry to trouble you, but we have a problem with our order.’

They were going to say their clone was defunct, Jean-Claude just knew it.

‘Yes. I remember. What’s the problem?’

‘It’s disappeared.’

Jean-Claude spluttered into his tisane.

‘Pardon? I thought you said it had disappeared.’

‘I did. It has. My wife didn’t like the thing, wouldn’t have it in the house - but that’s another story. Anyway, I repackaged it the same evening and stored it in the garage as we were going away for a day or two. Down to Eastbourne, to Penny’s mother. We always go at this time of the-’

‘Yes, yes, I understand. Where is it now?’

‘That’s the thing. It’s gone. From a locked garage. Just disappeared.’

Jean-Claude wondered what on earth the man expected him to do about that, but probed for more details.

‘When was the last time you saw it?’

‘As I said, when it arrived Penny took against it. She didn’t like the idea of me using a female shoulder I suppose. At any rate, she said I had to send it back.’

‘But you didn’t?’

‘I didn’t really want to. I thought if I put it out of sight for a day or two, she might calm down and come round to my way of thinking. But now-’

Jean-Claude’s heart lifted. Emma must have escaped somehow.