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start by calling me Gavin as almost everybody else did. I don’t know how this ridiculous formality came about, but I suspected she might have been at one of my lectures on Old Town archaeology at one time. She seemed like the kind of person who would like being seen at that kind of cultural event.
    Dan put her smaller box with the others and took off his back-pack to unload it.
    ‘What happened with the neighbourhood wardens?’ I enquired. Better to distract myself with random chat than to have to break the news to Declan.
    ‘Oh, they were being officious again,’ said Declan dismissively. ‘Trying to tell us where we could and couldn’t go. According to them, the last Tesco’s is out of bounds except to people still living in Colinton… Like there are many of those. Everybody with any sense has moved up here or gone to stay with family up north.’
    ‘That’s a nuisance,’ I said absently, scanning the sky for helicopters.
    ‘’Hey mate,’ said Declan. ‘Is there something you want to tell us?’
    ‘Um,’ I said. I handed him the black device. ‘I accidentally set this off and now Ms Fairfax is bringing reinforcements.’
    I felt like a schoolboy who’d been clyping to the teachers as three pairs of eyes stared at me with expressions ranging from disapproval to – well, stronger disapproval.
    ‘That’s nice,’ said Mrs Swan. ‘We could do with a few more bodies around here. Some of us aren’t getting any younger, you know.’
    Staring back at Declan, I had the feeling one of the bodies was going to be mine. But it was too late to do anything about it now.
    ‘So you happened to come across the thing – where, exactly?’ said Declan.
    ‘In your hut,’ I mumbled. ‘Sorry – I just thought I should keep a hold of it myself. It was my responsibility.’
    ‘It was your responsibility not to bring hordes of soldiers down on our heads,’ said Declan. He turned on his heel. ‘Fiona!’
    They walked off together towards the hut they had called home for the past month or two. I wondered what they would do. Fetching a weapon was one strong possibility. Packing to leave was another. It was beyond my psychic powers to predict which it would be, although I firmly hoped there wouldn’t be a weapon involved. Ms Fairfax and her troops must have better weapons at their disposal than we had. She seemed like a woman who had the most advanced defence equipment that money could buy or that theft and guile could obtain elsewhere and smuggle across the border. I didn’t want Dan to get caught in the middle. Well, to be perfectly honest I didn’t want to get caught in the middle either. Emma would kill me, apart from anything else.
    Once again I wished she was the one getting out of the helicopter that had just landed not very far away instead of Ms Fairfax. Maybe if I closed my eyes and wished…
    She wasn’t wearing a suit this time but a sort of set of overalls. They looked better on her than they did on her little band of assistants, who were mere teenagers of both genders. Maybe Dan would unexpectedly bond with them and we would all form one big happy family.
    ‘Thought I’d better come along and see them settled in,’ she said. ‘Can you recommend somewhere for us to set up the tents?’
    ‘Um, not really. Maybe Declan…’
    I glanced over at Declan’s hut. No sign of life. Had he and Fiona sneaked out the back way and vanished into the wilds already? Just then the jeep started up, over behind the old farmhouse. There was a kind of track that led down towards Bonaly, or they could take the rougher road the water company used to use, that led over to the next reservoir and from there down to Balerno. I had heard the river had engulfed most of the village, so unless he knew something I didn’t know…
    ‘What’s that?’ said Dan, shifting uneasily beside me. ‘What have you done?’
    He turned and looked at accusingly. I noticed he had grown, apparently overnight, so that he was now very nearly