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them, leaving a luminous glow. She tucked the bottle away.
    “Why did you spray the vending machine?” Jordan asked.
    “To remind us to collect the food later. If we find anything useful, we spray it. Here.” She gave him a small spray can. “Happy shopping.”
    Joel got to the end of the room. “Clear.”
    “Clear,” Anne confirmed. They didn’t wait to hear Jordan say it.
    Joel raised the walkie talkie to his mouth. “How’re we looking, Stan?”
    “Good,” came the reply. “Weather’s” -there was a hiss of static- “Nothing” -then another hiss- “wandering about.”
    “What was that? Stan?” Joel shook the walkie talkie, smacked it against his palm. “The signal was bad. Hello?”
    “Ev erything’s fine,” the reply came.
    “All right. Keep us informed.”
    “Will do.”
    Cars, coaches and an articulated lorry sat parked bumper to bumper on the platform forming long gnarled narrow corridors and a thousand cloaked recesses. Joel turned to Anne and Jordan with an annoyed expression.
    “We know, we know,” Anne said. “You hate ferries.”
    Joel and Anne moved to the end of the room and began their sweep. Jordan noticed their movements were more crisp and precise than on the previous floor. They peered around at head height, then crouched down, sweeping their flashlights beneath the vehicles. They returned to a standing pose, pausing to listen, then moved to the end of the vehicle and repeated the manoeuvre. Jordan followed their lead. He picked it up easily and was soon checking the area with the same deft movements. They moved one vehicle length at a time, taking special care to peer behind each. Soon, Jordan was rolling through the motions. He got to the other end of the room before he realized.
    “Clear,” Joel said. Anne and Jordan reciprocated. Jordan received a nod of respect from Joel.
    “I’ll take first watch,” Joel said, taking up position at the stairwell that led dow n to the next level.
    “ What does he mean, ‘first watch’?” Jordan asked Anne as they moved to a Ford Galaxy people carrier.
    “He’s making sure nothing comes up the stairs from the levels we haven’t checked yet.”
    Anne tried the car’s doors, but they were locked. She reached into her backpack and came out with a long flat length of metal, similar in shape to a ruler, and a length of wire with a hook on the end. She slid them into the gap between the window and door frame and pulled. There was a solid clunk as the doors unlocked. Anne nodded to Jordan, who raised the chair leg above his head. Anne opened a door. The car was empty.
    “ Remember,” Anne went on, “we’re looking for food, water, and games for the girls.”
    There was nothing of value on the front passenger seat, save a collection of RnB CDs. In the boot were three suitcases. Anne pulled them out, a soft boom echoed as they hit the floor. She opened them and sorted through the materials with quick, deft movements. She stopped, looked up at Jordan, smiled and said, “Jackpot.”
    Nestled amongst the clothes were jars of French sauces, packets of instant coffee, noodles, and bags of sweets. Anne upended one of the suitcases and stuffed it full with the food items. They searched four more cars before they found more food.
    Jordan pulled the suitcase after them. He stopped and wiped the sweat off his forehead. “You know, I think this bag is getting heav ier the longer I drag it around.”
    “It’s not you ,” Anne said. “It’s the floor. It’s sloped.”
    Jordan looked at it, but saw no evidence of any slope. “You reckon?”
    Anne picked up a football from the back of one of the cars and set it on the floor. It immediately began rolling toward the far right-hand corner. It picked up speed and hit the wall with force. “Yeah, I think it’s safe to say we’re listing.”
    “Let’s change around ,” Joel said. “Anne, you take point.”
    Joel proved just as adept at breaking into cars as Anne. They had ways of opening