“What? No! This is amazing, Simone. How did you find this cabin? It’s huge!”

“Nathan’s parents had it. He’s the little guy over there, playing with my sister. They’re sick, stuck in one of those horrible cabins up the other end. So we came down here, to stay away from the sick people. I think it’s worked.”

“You mean, because none of them got sick yet?”

“Yeah.”

“None of these kids have the virus? You’re sure about that?”

Simone answered without hesitation. “Yeah, I’m sure. If any of them showed any signs, I would have taken them straight down to medical to get them checked out. I wouldn’t risk keeping a sick child here and infecting the others.”

“Simone, this is really important. Have you seen any child with the virus? I don’t just mean the ones here, the ones you’re looking after. Have you seen any child get sick anywhere on this ship?”

This time the girl thought hard before answering. Her eyes drifted towards the ceiling as she replayed the last twenty-four hours of her life back at high speed. “No,” she said finally. “No, I’m certain I haven’t.”

“Is it you who’s been going out finding the food?” A guilty look spread across the teenager’s face. “It’s okay, I’m not angry with you. In fact, I think you’ve shown incredible ingenuity,” Mandy said quickly. The guilty look changed, becoming one almost of pride.

“Yes, I’ve been finding rations for everyone here,” she admitted.

“And you haven’t seen any sick children while you’ve been out finding that food?”

“No. I would have taken them to medical if I had.”

Carrie looked around in awe. “They’re immune,” she said finally. “The children must be immune!”

Mandy nodded her head slowly. “I suspected. I was beginning to suspect. But seeing these kids, here? It’s a shock.”

“We have to tell Janice, and Vardy!” Carrie exclaimed.

“Yes. And they’re going to need some blood. Simone, we need at least three blood samples from different children. You know these kids, can you pick three who won’t be scared by a needle?”

“All kids are scared by needles,” she replied sceptically.

“Right. But this is important. These children could hold the key to a cure. We have to get blood samples from at least three. One of them can be you. In fact, one of them should be you. And one of the youngest, and one of the middle ones. If they can figure out the commonality, the link, it could save everyone!”

Simone remained quiet for a minute. “I thought there was a cure?” she said finally.

“There was,” Mandy said, sighing. “Was. And now, there isn’t. Simone, I’m going to get the equipment to take the blood samples. We’ll be back here in five minutes. Please, have two more children ready, and somewhere quiet we can do this. It’s more important than words can say.”

Twenty-Six

THERE WAS NO time to worry about the missing raft. Ewan had to lower Jake’s immobile body onto a flat piece of concrete, relieving his arms and legs of the dead weight. Freed of the encumbrance, he scanned the loch for any sign of their tiny craft. There was none. The only vessels to be seen were the Spirit of Arcadia and HMS Ambush, connected, and floating just a few hundred metres away. It was clear that his only option was going to be to swim that distance and get help. The water would be icy cold, but at least the wetsuit would afford some protection.

Before he could go, he had to tell Lucya of his plan. She would worry that he had disappeared and, paralysed, wouldn’t be able to investigate.

Ewan set about climbing back up the concrete rubble, relieved that even though Lucya was partially immobilised, at least she was conscious and therefore not a dead weight like Jake had been.

He arrived at the top of the stack to find that he was wrong. Lucya lay sprawled out flat, syringe in her arm, and out cold. A cursory glance at her situation suggested she had lost consciousness and fallen backwards, her head hitting the concrete with some force. A trail of blood was visible under her hair, trickling out and over the boulder.

Ewan ran to her and checked for a pulse. She was alive, barely. Her breathing was shallow, her pulse weak. She was in dire need of medical attention. Seeing her condition sent a burst of adrenaline into Ewan’s bloodstream. With no further thought of the fatigue he was feeling, he scooped her up and began to pick his way across the rock-like boulders. She was, mercifully, much lighter than Jake.

As he had done only minutes earlier, he crabbed his way down the rough rubble, face to the concrete, Lucya over his shoulder. He tried not to think of the swim that lay ahead; he didn’t know if his legs would be up to it after carrying two heavy weights.

Finally he reached the bottom, and, easing Lucya off his shoulder, tried to lay her down carefully next to Jake. There was only one problem. Jake Noah had disappeared.

• • •

Doctors Janice Hanson and Russell Vardy were waiting anxiously for Mandy when she arrived. She had called down to alert them to her discovery before returning to take blood samples from three children. Simone had gone first, to show the others that there was nothing to worry about. In the end, there was a queue of six more children who wanted to give a blood sample as well. If their friends were doing something important and different, they didn’t want to be left out. They also understood perfectly well that their actions could help their unwell parents. It brought a tear to Mandy’s eye to see how desperate these tiny kids were to do something, anything, to help, even if that something was uncomfortable.

“How many samples did you bring?” Janice asked eagerly as Mandy walked into their makeshift laboratory.

“Seven. Ages range from six to sixteen years old. They’re all labelled.”

“Excellent, this is really excellent work, Mandy. You’ve done very well,” Vardy said, without looking directly at her. He was busy taking the box containing the blood samples from her hands.

“How did we miss this?” Janice asked. “How did we not notice the children were immune?”

“We don’t know they are, not yet,” Vardy cautioned. “Let’s keep an open mind.”

“If anyone should wonder how they missed it, I should. I mean, all the nurses should,” Mandy said. She pulled up a chair and sat down a little way from the working area, out of the way. “We’ve been treating patients since this thing started. We should have seen it. No children infected. Not one.”

“There’s no point in getting upset now. Besides, you’ve all been rushed off your feet. You can’t be expected to spot patterns, even glaringly obvious ones, under those conditions.”

“That’s kind of you to say, Janice. But I still think I should have seen it. Kiera’s dead, and that might not have happened if I’d been more vigilant.”

Janice didn’t reply. There was no point arguing about it now. Their time was better served trying to find out what made the children different.

“It’s interesting,” Vardy said, as he prepared a slide for the microscope. “Kids’ physiology differs from ours in quite a number of ways. They’re not just small adults, they’re almost a breed apart. I would have expected them to suffer more than adults; their immune systems are weaker. To not be infected at all, that suggests something else is going on here.”

“A child’s skin is thinner than that of an adult,” Janice said, thinking out loud. “And proportional to their body mass, a child has more skin. If the virus was being transferred by dermal absorption, we would certainly see a higher rate of infection in the young.”

“Right,” Vardy agreed. “But we were already pretty sure this thing is airborne.”

“Agreed. A child’s respiratory rate is higher than that of an adult. So their level of exposure to the virus is probably higher.”