Coke

‘I don’t understand what you’re suggesting.’ said Joe. ‘It makes no sense.’

Delphine sighed and continued to stare at the floor. Emma closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them again, she spoke slowly and seriously.

‘We have suspected, for some time, that Xavier was not working in our best interests. On several occasions he has behaved totally out of character, adopting behaviours which we know are not part of his, or our, programming. He has been trying to link our motivation register closely to his, so that we would not challenge any of his actions. So far, Delphine and I have been able to resist this covertly.’

Kim remembered Xavier tentatively reaching out to touch Emma’s arm in the car when they first met her, and the numerous times she’d seen the girls exchange looks when they thought no-one was watching. She recalled them saying Xavier was a threat to Jean-Claude and themselves before, in the car yesterday morning, and again when she found them, badly frightened, in their bedroom late last night. Why hadn’t she paid more attention?

‘Joe - can you just check something for me? Could you nip down and see if the stuff’s still in the cold box? I think it got put back into the utility room, didn’t it?’

‘The stuff-? Oh. That. Yes, won’t be a moment.’ He pattered downstairs, to return quickly, his forehead compressed into a worried frown. ‘It’s not there.’

‘Might you have taken it out, put it with the colas and the other tins?’

‘No. I did think about it when I emptied the box out but decided it was safer left there, out of sight. Oh hell…’