‘Jay-zus-Christ-Almighty, you made me jump there,’ he uttered. ‘One secondyou were sleeping all peaceful, the next you’re up like a screamin’banshee.’

Maddy felt her breath rattling like a startled moth caught in a wire cage. Wheezing, shelooked down and saw she was still clasping her inhaler, just as she had been a moment agoaboard the plane. She took a long pull on it and then managed to find enough air in her lungsto sit up slowly.

‘I’m dead. I must be dead.’

The young man managed a weak and awkward smile. ‘Me too… I think.’

They looked at each other for a moment. ‘I wonder,’ he said, ‘do you think-?’

‘That this is heaven?’ she finished his question. ‘No such thing. If thereis… then it looks a bit rubbish to me.’ The bunk bed in which she was lyingcreaked with movement from above. Maddy looked up at the springs and mattress.

‘Is there somebody else up there?’

Liam nodded. ‘Yeah, a young dark-skinned girl. She’s asleep.’

‘Her name’s Saleena,’ a voice called out of the darkness.

They both jerked round to look out into the gloom beyond the light thrown down from the barebulb.

They heard footsteps on the hard concrete floor, and then, faintly at first, they saw a manemerge from the darkness, carrying a tray.

‘Coffee?’ asked the old man.

‘Oh my God!’ gasped Maddy, recognizing the face.

Liam’s jaw dropped. ‘You! You’re the man on deck E.’

‘That’s right,’ he replied calmly. ‘My name’sFoster.’

He joined them, setting the tray of chipped mugs and a carton of doughnuts on the floorbetween the beds. He sat on the bed next to Liam.

‘And you’re Madelaine Carter, and you’re Liam O’Connor.’ Henodded towards the top bunk. ‘The girl up there’s Sal Vikram. She’s onlyyoung, thirteen. The poor girl will be terrified when she comes to. Here.’ He handedLiam and Maddy a mug of coffee. ‘You could both probably do with a littlepick-me-up.’