Maddy thought she’d seen something of that in the support unit, the emergence of behaviour that might be described as an emotion — a desire to please, to seek approval.

‘We’ll just have to wait and see what we get. If the data’s good, she should be pretty much the Becks we know and love.’

If the data’s good.

But Maddy’s mind was on something else, on that portion of the hard drive Becks had partitioned off and encrypted. Several millimetres of silicon that contained a secret so important that it had become the source of the legend of the Holy Grail, caused the very existence of the Knights Templar and compelled King Richard to launch his own crusade to retake Jerusalem. A secret transmitted across two thousand years of history. A secret meant for them.

But not yet apparently.

What was it Becks had said? That the message contained instructions for the truth not to be revealed just yet.

‘ When it is the end… ’

‘I hope the message from that old manuscript isn’t all messed up,’ said Liam as if he was reading her thoughts. ‘I’d love to find out what it said one day, so I would.’

Maddy smiled. ‘Me too.’

The shutter door rattled gently as a fist banged against it outside.

‘I’ll get it,’ said Sal. She hopped off the sofa’s arm, crossed the archway and hit the shutter’s button. It cranked up noisily, letting in daylight and revealing Bob’s thick, hairy legs. In an attempt to make him blend in more with the tourists in Times Square, Sal was trying out the shorts-and-flip-flops-and-Hawaiian-shirt look on him. Maddy wasn’t entirely sure that was working. He looked like a freakish version of Clark Kent taking a vacation.

Bob ducked down under the shutter, holding a cardboard take-away tray in his ham-shank-sized hands.

‘Who requested the caramel frappuccino?’

CHAPTER 4