The front door opened, to reveal Xavier, carrying the cool box and another bag. As he stepped aside to put down his load, they saw Kim and Joe behind him, supporting Jean-Claude. Emma and Delphine immediately backed away, alarm evident in their faces.
‘What on earth’s the matter. What’s happened?’ said Kim, seeing red smears on Delphine’s face.
‘You’ll lead them to us,’ cried Emma, ‘They will find us and-’
‘I think we should be safe, so long as we don’t activate ze phones or ze internet.’
Jean-Claude’s voice was calm as he moved towards Delphine and Emma. Kim assumed he was going to greet them in the traditional French way, but no - he lifted a hand and touched each clone’s forehead in turn.
‘Temperature is good, have you taken nourishment?’ He looked at his hand and sniffed it. ‘Is this tomato sauce Delphine?’
The young woman nodded. Kim relaxed.
‘And you, Xavier, how is your temperature now?’
‘It’s at median. I ran a test and the system is working as it should. I am confident that when I power down for routine maintenance tonight any residual fault will be repaired.’
‘Good, good,’ Jean-Claude nodded and turned back to Joe and Kim. ‘This is a delightful surprise, to know zat three of them have survived. I also am feeling much better, now that we are away from zat place. I can’t think why I felt so unwell.’ Which wasn’t entirely true, he had been piecing together one or two ideas in the car on the drive to the house, and worrying about the result.
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