It had meant an hour’s wait, but she was almost up to the desk where two more soldiers, bulky and strange in their biohazard suits, were checking people off before they got their hand-out. Two more soldiers stood nearby, with their assault rifles ready, and an armoured personnel carrier was parked so that its turret-mounted gun was aligned with the long queue of people that stretched behind Leaf. In some ways it looked like they were in enemy territory, not on a relief expedition in their own country, but then Leaf supposed the soldiers were nervous that some people would attack them because, after all, they had destroyed the hospital and irradiated the surrounding region, supposedly in order to sterilise it against further viral infection.

“Name?” asked the soldier when Leaf got to the desk. Even through the mask, she sounded kinder than the soldier Leaf had spoken to first. “How many in the family? Anyone sick?”

“My name’s Leaf, but I’m not here for my family. I’m from Friday’s private hospital three blocks away. We’ve got more than a thousand patients…and we need help.”

“Uh…a thousand patients?” asked the soldier. Leaf couldn’t see her face behind the mask, not even her eyes, as the Army masks had tinted lenses – but she sounded shocked. “A private hospital?”

“I think it’s one thousand and seven,” said Leaf. “Mostly pretty old, so quite a few are sick. I mean, not from the radiation, or not yet, but just because they were sick to start with. Or just old.”

“Um, I’m gonna have to check up on this one,” said the soldier. “Stand over there and wait, please.”

Leaf stood to one side as the soldier flicked a switch on the side of her mask and spoke on her radio. Her mask muffled her voice, but Leaf could hear a few words.

“Private hospital…thousand or more…not listed…No, sir…map…”

Leaf missed the next few words. Then the soldier was silent, listening to a reply that Leaf couldn’t hear at all. This went on for at least a minute, then the soldier turned towards Leaf and said, “OK, Major Penhaligon is coming to see you. Wait there until he arrives.”

Major Penhaligon? thought Leaf. That must be Arthur’s brother, who warned him about the nuclear strike.

She looked around while she waited. East Area Hospital was still sort of visible, about two miles away, though it was only a shell with one high wall still standing. A lot of the buildings around it had also been flattened and there were still some of the sealed fire trucks plying their water cannons on smouldering wreckage. There were also thirty or more orange armoured personnel carriers with the big black Q for Quarantine on their sides, lined up along the road that went to the hospital. The closest one had its back doors open and Leaf saw it had four shelves on each side, each holding several long orange bags. It took her a moment to comprehend that these were body bags.

Leaf got a terrible sick feeling in her stomach, looking at those body bags. As far as she knew, her parents and her brother, Ed, had left the hospital in the week when she was unconscious from the Greyspot disease, but she hadn’t been able to confirm that. She’d tried to get in touch with them at home, which was several miles away and so at least a bit safer, but all communications were down.

They must be OK, thought Leaf. They have to be all right. I’ve got to try not to think about them. I have a job to do.

She looked away from the body bags, but the sight of the people in the line was no more encouraging. Though she could only see their eyes, everyone looked frightened.

I’m frightened too, thought Leaf. Maybe we’re all going to die from the radiation. Look at the soldiers – they’re in complete protective gear with proper gas masks and everything. But then, if Arthur can’t stop the House and the entire Universe from getting destroyed, we’re all going to die anyway.

“Miss?”

A voice behind her made her turn round. Two soldiers stood there. They had no rank badges, but they did have name tags on their suits. One read PENHALIGON and the other read CHEN.

“I’m Major Penhaligon and this is Sergeant Chen,” said the shorter figure. “I understand you’re from a private hospital closer towards East Area?”

“Yes,” said Leaf. “I was kind of there by accident on Friday night. I know one of the…nurses, but there’s no other staff there and about a thousand old people—”

“We have no information on this hospital,” said the Major. “It’s not listed at all, anywhere, so this had better not be some sort of crazy—”

“It is there!” protested Leaf. “Come with me and I’ll show you. Then if you find out it’s not true, you can shoot me or blow me up or whatever else you’re all so good at. You’re not much good at helping people!”

A ripple of applause answered this loud speech. Leaf looked over her shoulder and saw most of the closer people in the queue were clapping, and one man was even shaking his fist in the air. A woman called out, “You tell ’em, girl! We want help, not bombs!”

“All right,” said Major Penhaligon. He clicked a switch under his chin so that his mask amplified his voice, making it loud enough for the people in the line to hear him. “We’re going to look into it. Keep in line and stay calm.”

He turned the amplification off when he spoke to Leaf. “Where is this hospital?”

“The main entrance is that way, on the corner of Grand Avenue,” said Leaf. “I’ll show you.”

“That’s on the edge of the kill zone,” said Sergeant Chen. She was considerably taller and broader than Major Penhaligon, so until Leaf heard her voice, she’d thought it was a male soldier inside the suit. “Were you inside when the strike happened, miss?”

“Yes,” answered Leaf. “Underground, with some of the patients. But a lot of them were on the ground floor. What do you mean, the ‘kill zone’?”

“If you were underground you’ll probably be OK,” said Major Penhaligon. He hesitated, then added, “The initial burst of radiation would be lethal anywhere within five hundred metres of the target point, and if there is a hospital there it would be on the edge of that. I suppose we’d better go and take a look. Chen, you better give Miss…uh, Miss…”

“My name is Leaf,” said Leaf.

“Give Miss Leaf a shot of CBL505.”

“This is an antiradiation drug,” said Chen as she slapped an auto-injector against Leaf’s neck. She felt the sting of the needle before she could flinch away. “Same as in the take-home packs we’re giving out. Uh, sir, if we’re heading closer to ground zero we should put Miss Leaf in a suit.”

“OK,” said Major Penhaligon. “You double back to…Decontamination Four is for female personnel, isn’t it? Get her cleaned and suited up and then call me. I’ve got to go take care of something anyway.”

“Yes, sir,” said Chen. She took Leaf by the arm and started to lead her away.

“Thanks,” said Leaf. Then, because she was wondering about Arthur and where he was, she added, “Are you related to Arthur Penhaligon, by the way?”

Major Penhaligon swung round. “He’s my little brother. Do you know him? Do you know where he is?”

“He’s a friend of mine,” said Leaf. “But I don’t know where he is.”

“When did you last see him?” asked Major Penhaligon.

“Er…sometime last week,” hedged Leaf.

“Did he mention anything strange?”

“What do you mean?” asked Leaf. She tried to keep her face from showing anything. By any definition, everything Arthur had been involved with in recent times was strange.

“Dad’s house is gone,” said Major Penhaligon. “Not destroyed. Just plain gone. I’ve tracked down Michaeli and Eric – they’re with friends, they’re OK – but I can’t find Arthur or Emily.”

“A lot of weird stuff has happened around here,” offered Leaf.

“That’s for sure,” said Major Penhaligon. “Where did you see Arthur?”

“In the hospital,” said Leaf. She hadn’t been ready for the sudden question. “Friday’s hospital, I mean. With the old people. But he left.”

“Where was he going?”

Leaf shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“When was this?”

“Friday night. Uh, after you called him.”

“After I called him?” asked Major Penhaligon. “But I called him on the home number! He wouldn’t have had time to get anywhere near here from home and according to the neighbours the house was already gone…”

“The phone was switched through,” said Leaf, which was true. She just couldn’t say that it was switched through to a telephone that materialised out of nowhere.

“I guess that kind of explains how the house could be gone, but I still spoke to Arthur.” Major Penhaligon shook his head. “This just gets weirder and weirder. I don’t see how there can be an entire hospital full of patients that’s not on any database or map either. I’ll see you at Decon Four in fifteen minutes, Sergeant Chen, Miss Leaf.”

He turned around and strode away. Chen pulled lightly on Leaf’s arm, directing her towards one of the side streets.

“This way,” said the soldier. “It’s not far.”

“OK,” said Leaf. She was quiet for the first few steps, just thinking about Arthur, and her family, and all the sleepers back at the hospital. There was so much to do. For a moment she wondered why she was bothering, since it seemed the whole Universe might get snuffed out by Nothing anyway.

But the Universe might not end, Leaf thought. And then where would you be? Better to do something, because it might just work out.

“What other weird stuff is happening?” she asked Chen.

“Plenty,” the soldier replied, but she didn’t elaborate. They walked another twenty yards or so, around the next street corner. Leaf saw that the whole avenue ahead was full of dozens of Army and Federal Biocontrol Authority vehicles. The car parks for the shops and buildings on either side of the avenue were occupied by five huge pressurised tents, soon to be joined by three entire prefab structures the size of Leaf’s house, which were in the process of being off-loaded from oversize semitrailers.

Ominously, the prefab buildings had large red crosses on them, and Leaf noted that beyond the Army vehicles, there were at least twenty big, six-wheeled hazardous environment ambulances.

Everyone working wore full protective suits with masks. The whole place added up to an expectation by the authorities that they would have to deal with a very large number of dead and dying people. Chen pointed to the closest pressurised tent, which was pitched in a supermarket car park. The tent had a newly painted sign in front of it, staked into the pavement. The sign had a cartoon picture of a smiling fat man scrubbing himself in a bubble bath, and read: 11TH CBRN BATTALION PRESENTS DECONTAMINATION STATION FOUR.

“Got to have a sense of humour,” Sergeant Chen said with a sigh as soon as she saw the sign.

“Why?” asked Leaf.

“You’ll see,” said Chen. “I guess a small laugh helps everyone cope with the serious stuff. Come on.”

As they walked over and Chen waved to the soldier on guard outside the big tent, Leaf asked, “You know the weird stuff…does it involve anyone with…uh…wings?”

Chen stopped and gripped Leaf hard. “Who told you about the General?”

“No one!” said Leaf. “But I’ve seen…uh…winged people.”

Chen released Leaf. “General Pravuil, who was in charge of this operation, disappeared at midnight last night. The sentries outside said they saw people with wings fly him out of an upstairs window and disappear into thin air. Where did you see them?”

“Above the private hospital,” said Leaf. “On Friday.”

“If you see them again tell the nearest soldier,” said Chen. “Or the FBA or whoever. There’s a theory going around that they’re terrorists utilising some sort of advanced genetically engineered flying system.”

“Right,” said Leaf. She couldn’t see any point in telling Chen that they were Denizens. She wondered if Pravuil, who Arthur had said worked for Saturday, had simply left, or if he’d been taken away by forces working for Dame Primus, or perhaps the Piper. “What do I do now?”

“Go in there,” said Chen, pointing to the air-lock entrance of Decon Station Four. “They’ll take care of you. I’ll wait.”

Leaf went up to the door. The soldier outside keyed the outer door, which slid open. Leaf walked in and the door shut behind her. She was in a small, featureless white room.

“Close your eyes and mouth, and stay completely still,” said a woman’s tinny, amplified voice.

Leaf obeyed. A second later, she gasped as a high-pressure shower came on, the water hitting her hard, like tiny needles pricking her everywhere, even through her doctor’s coat. This lasted for about ten seconds then suddenly stopped.

“Open your eyes,” said the voice. “Remove all your clothing and place it in the receptacle to your left.”

Leaf slowly opened her eyes. There was a faint hiss of compressed air and a panel slid open in the wall to her left, revealing what looked like a dustbin.

Leaf took off her clothes, but left her underwear on.

“All clothing must be removed, as it may be irradiated,” said the woman’s voice. “New clothing will be issued. This is normal procedure.”