Sorrow accompanied Number Seven down to floor -9 of St Thomas’ Hospital. She didn’t get out of the lift with him. 'When you’re done here Alex will walk you to the lift.'

'You don’t trust me to get to the lift unaided?'

'I trust you to find trouble wherever you go looking for it. I trust Alex to make sure you don’t go looking. And don’t insult her by pretending that I’m chill with you wandering around. I already sent her a text.'

Seven felt her eyes on him as he walked to Six’s room. As he approached the door he heard Number Six talking within.

'Three weeks I was stuck working in that bloody office, fitting in, learning the routine, picking my way through the security protocol,' said Six.

Seven smiled. Six must be feeling better if he was telling that story.

'Painstaking work,' said Alex.

'Damn right. And then Lucky just waltzes straight in through the front door with the flimsiest possible cover and starts chatting up the boss. I knew it was only a matter of time before he’d shagged it out of her so I waited for him to have her well and truly distracted, sneaked into her room, stole her keycard, copied her fingerprint from a glass, and I was in and out of the computer room before she’d stopped screaming his cover name,' said Six.

Six was sitting up at last, perched on the edge of his bed. He looked terrible but, all things considered, remarkably good for someone who’d been blown up less than a week ago. He was still stripped to the waist and the six pack that Seven envied was on full show. Alex was doing an excellent job of pretending not to stare.

'Don’t believe a word he says,' said Seven. 'It’s all lies.'

'If you insist,' said Alex. 'But he’s just spent an hour talking about how no woman can resist you and you never rest until they’re satisfied.'

'Maybe not so much lies as gross exaggeration,' said Seven.

'How gross? No, don't tell me. Give me a call sometime and show me,' said Alex.

'Can you give us the room for a few minutes,' said Seven.

'Of course.'

The moment the door closed behind her, Number Six spoke, 'Please tell me you’ve come to break me out.'

'It’s not safe,' said Seven.

'If I cared about safe I’d still be in the army. Or acting or something.'

'It looks more and more like an inside job. We’re being manipulated by someone and I can’t tell if it’s one of us or…' he signed the letter Y. 'You remember those bankers you ripped off? Roger Eames and his friends.'

Six grinned, 'Of course I do. That was fun.'

'I paid Roger a visit just on the off chance.'

'It’s not really his style,' said Six.

'We don’t have any better suspects. He’d been tipped off that we, that I specifically, would be coming to see him.'

'Hardly surprising,' said Six. 'You do tend to go looking for someone in a suit to punch.'

'Four days ago. Before the wake. Before anyone knew that I would survive the wake.'

'So you think we’re being manipulated?'

'We’re dying in numerical order. If that’s intentional, if it’s a plan, then it needs me to die last and they must have manipulated us somehow.'

'And if it is then I’m safe until Five dies but once he does they’ll come for me?' said Six.

'If there is a plan it probably involves waiting for Five to die and then killing you immediately afterwards.'

'That’s what I’d do if I wanted you to be reacting instead of thinking,' said Six. 'You’re a lot more predictable when you’re not thinking. Which is why you should break me out. It’s the last thing they’d be expecting.'

'Why the hurry. How are things with Alex?'

'Not as good as with you and Sorrow,' said Six.

'I don’t know what you mean,' said Seven.

'You’ve got that smug post coital look and your posture’s improved. What was she like?'

Seven considered saying that a gentleman doesn’t kiss and tell but Six was bound to point out all the many ways in which he was no gentleman. 'I may have stopped breathing at one point.'

'That rough? That’s army girls for you,' said Six.

'Not rough, exactly. But she’s got a Goddess in her head and I think she might have got involved.'

'A threesome with a Goddess? If it was anyone but you I’d call bullshit.'

'Speaking of bullshit… Are you going to tell me what’s going on with Alex or do I have to ask her?'

'I know what she’s upset about but it’s probably not relevant. It’s an internal staffing matter triggered by me turning her down.'

'Only you could complicate another agency’s staffing by not sleeping with someone. You’d better correct your mistake.'

'I’m injured,' said Six.

'And you want me to break you out? If you’re not ready for Alex you’re not ready for the outside,' said Seven.

Number Six slumped slightly.

'Just ask yourself what I would do in your situation,' said Seven. 'But be careful. Like I said, inside job. And there’s stuff they’re not telling us. I had a visit from Five last night…'

'He’s up?' said Six, interrupting.

'No. He’s still in a coma. It was an astral projection or something.' Seven stopped, briefly unable to continue in the face of Six’s expression. 'You were the one who said the Department plays by different rules. He said he was dying and the Department know about it and haven’t said anything. I saw him as clearly as I see you. Almost. I could see through him.'

'And I thought they were giving me the good drugs,' said Six.

'I wasn’t hallucinating. He told me that you’ve been having bad dreams. Dreaming about death chasing you through the desert.'

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

Six looked down. 'Maybe not the drugs then.'

#

The medical offices were up one floor on -8. Dr Hung, the Department’s Chief Medical Officer, had his office right next to the lifts. Sorrow knew him to be obsessed with getting to where he was needed as quickly as possible. He regularly complained that the lifts weren’t fast enough.

His office was large and surprisingly airy for being 8 floors below ground level. It was easily the least cluttered office in the Department, a testament to his commitment to infection control. He was a master of both Chinese and Western medicine but the only concession to the Chinese side was a massive map of the Acupuncture points of the human body with his own, handwritten, notes added and that was encased in a glass and steel frame so it could be wiped down.

Dr Hung sat behind his desk looking smart and aseptic in freshly laundered surgical scrubs. He was the very picture of the respectable, educated, Cantonese man in early middle age. Only his calloused knuckles suggested otherwise.

The only thing in the office that wasn’t modern, sleek and easy to wipe clean was Kew, the Archdruid, head of pharmacology, chief of the Craft Section and second oldest person on the payroll.

Kew lounged, as much as was possible, in one of the ‘stylish’ visitor chairs wearing a tweed jacket complete with leather elbow patches, and battered cord trousers. With his longish hair and full beard he looked like a throwback to 70s academia. It never occurred to people that he might throw back a lot farther.

'Thanks to your message this morning we’ve already begun treatment but it’s very much a good news, bad news situation,' said Doctor Hung

'It’s a two part poison,' said Kew, 'We’ve neutralised the physical poison with a preparation of vinca alkaloid from the periwinkle plant. But because the Yew trees it came from grew in Avalon it’s also a metaphysical toxin and it’s destroying his soul.'

'The patient is still dying but at least he’s dying more slowly,' said Doctor Hung.

'So what’s the plan then?' said Sorrow.

'Someone needs to go to Avalon,' said Doctor Hung.

'Send Jude to get some periwhatzits?' said Sorrow.

'That’s not going to work,' said Kew. 'Number Five is too far gone. And the antidote would probably need to be prepared in Avalon, probably in the Cauldron of Dagda, and good as Jude is he’s no chemist.'

'And probably wouldn’t know a periwinkle if it bit him,' said Doctor Hung. 'Can’t we send Jude to get the Cauldron and take it back here?'

'Only if you want to start a war with the Nine. And I don’t think you do,' said Sorrow.

'And it might not work here,' said Kew.

'Can we take Number Five to the Cauldron?' Said Doctor Hung.

'The hard part will be getting him into Avalon,' said Sorrow. 'If we take him in physically then it’ll be a bigger expedition and more likely to start something with the Nine. But it strikes me that we could go a stealth route. Send someone there in astral form. You need someone sneaky to get in and use the Cauldron without them knowing about it and you’ve got someone who can do that. You’ve got the greatest cat burglar alive right here in the building.'

'We do?' said Doctor Hung.

'Number Five,' said Kew, 'You need to start reading the patient files all the way through, Yuen. And the benefit of sending Five is that he won’t need to prepare an antidote. He can just climb into the cauldron and it should repair the damage and flush the poison. We’ll have to find him a guide though. Where do you find a psychopomp when you need one?'

'We’ve got one of those too and he owes us a favour. Bernard White stopped Officer Dee from turning him into a six piece Kentucky fried raven meal for one,' said Sorrow.

'We could offer him a name in return for helping,' said Kew.

'You’re the expert,' said Sorrow, 'I mainly just hit things.'

'You’ll have to open the way for them,' said Kew, 'and Number Five will have to be stabilised, but I can arrange everything else.'

'I can keep him alive and stable,' said Doctor Hung, 'but you need to be quick. It needs to be today.'

'Go and chaperone your spy,' said Kew, 'We’ll call you when we’re ready.

#

In the blindingly white corridor outside Number Six’s room Alex stood ramrod straight, stared at her yPhone and tried not to worry about Jude. She didn’t like to check up on him but if he wasn’t going to answer her texts she had to do something. She pulled up the locator app and pinged his yPhone. Oh. Apparently he was in the building.

On floor -9. Hold on a minute. She looked up and there was Jude, slouching against the wall on the other side of the corridor, looking decoratively casual.

'Where have you been all night?' said Alex. She stuffed the yPhone into her bra for safekeeping. It was a bad habit but there were no pockets in the dress, her handbag was back in the room and she wanted both hands free in case she needed to shake some sense into Jude.

'I wasn’t entertaining any oversexed spies if that’s what you’re worrying about,' said Jude.

'It wasn’t. I was worried that you’d been off somewhere brooding yourself into a self destructive frenzy over a missing oversexed spy,' said Alex.

'Probably fair. But I’m back now. Any news?'

'We know what’s poisoning Number Five, and why Doctor Hung hasn’t been able to fix it. Sorrow’s in with him now trying to work out what to do about it.'

'Good news at last then?' said Jude.

'Mixed news. The poison came from Avalon so SIS is going to assume it was us,' said Alex.

'You’d better get back in there and butter up your spy then,' said Jude. 'We need him to trust us.'

'I think you’re more his type than me.'

'Not what I’ve heard about him.'

'And what if I don’t want to?' said Alex, 'You turned your spy down.'

'I turned her down because she looked twelve. And I’ve been regretting it ever since. Just shut your eyes and pretend he’s me if you have to. You shouldn’t have to shut your eyes too hard. Take your contacts out and you can keep them open. And don’t forget to send me the CCTV footage. You know how I love to watch you work,' said Jude.

'Dirty old man,' said Alex, 'I swear you’re enjoying this.'

'Secret to a long life, my dear. You can enjoy anything if you try.' Jude looked over her shoulder and in through the viewing window at Number Seven. 'I see Sorrow’s broken her duck then.'

'What? Is that another of your bloody awful cricketing things?' said Alex.

Jude sighed. 'Yes. By which I mean she’s shagged her spy.'

'You sure? Yesterday she was committed to keeping her hands to herself.'

'Trust me. I know what a man looks like after a night of exhausting physical congress with a Goddess in human form.'

'I’m going to choose to take that as a compliment,' said Alex.

'You should. That’s how I meant it. I’d better go. I think the shagger-in-chief is on his way out and If I run into him I’m going to spend the rest of the day apologising. Again.'

#

As Number Seven left the room Alex had her back to him, staring in the direction of the lifts.

'A moment of your time before you escort me off the floor,' said Seven. He stepped away from the door so that Number Six wouldn’t be able to see them through the viewing window.

'Is there a problem?' said Alex.

'Frankly, yes. With your hospitality.'

'Excuse me,' said Alex, sounding both angry and amused.

'He’s been begging me to break him out of here. I can only assume he’s bored. Do you need tips on how to keep him occupied?'

'I have many ways to keep someone occupied. Or is this a euphemism?' said Alex.

'In his case yes. Sex is the only thing I’ve ever known to keep him distracted for long.'

'I’m not sure I’m his type,' said Alex.

'If he had a type it would be available, enthusiastic and experienced.'

'He’s already turned me down once, you know,' said Alex.

'Magically turning someone inside out doesn’t really work as flirting outside Department Y,' said Seven.

'That wasn’t flirting. That was terrible. That was the fallout from flirting,' said Alex.

'So it wasn’t deliberate?'

'Of course it wasn’t. What kind of monster do you think I… Oh. That’s why he suddenly lost interest.'

'It’s going to take a lot to get that image out of his mind but it will help if you tell him that it wasn’t some grotesque attempt to impress him,' said Seven.

Alex grinned. It suited her. For a moment she looked younger and Seven wondered exactly how old she was. Then her forehead creased in deep thought and her grin grew even wider. 'He’s really very competitive, isn’t he?'

'You’ve noticed.'

'Follow my lead.' She stepped back towards the door, one hand on Seven’s elbow, guiding him so that while she had her back to the viewing window he could look over her shoulder and see into the room. 'Can he see us?'

'We’ve got his attention,' said Seven.

Alex grabbed Seven’s tie and pulled him towards her until their lips met. Her hand on his elbow guided his hand to her breast and she half turned to present that image to the window.

'You could have just asked,' he whispered and he pushed her back against the door.