'Levi, what are you doing?' I gasped.

'What I have to, Evie,' he said, his face a mask of hard lines and determination.

Taj grasped his SA80 tightly in front of him, his eyes widening, trying to keep his voice calm, but it sounded pinched and tight, a note of desperation that was so unlike the level-heaed, calm Taj I knew. 'What you have to do is lower your damn weapons, Levi. We had a plan. An agreement. We're here for a reason.'

'And what is that reason?' Levi replied. 'Because from where I stand, I think that reason isn't what you say it is. I think you got us here under false pretences. I think this plan of yours stinks worse than this piece of shit here.' He nudged the Grey's corpse with his booted foot. 'Now, we came to this building in good faith. We came because you said there were humans held captive here. You said it was our chance to fight back.'

'And it is,' Taj insisted. 'We just have to keep going. We'll find them.'

'Fight back against what though, Taj?' Levi held out his hands. 'Against one lone enemy? Against the squadron outside that completely bypassed this place? Where are they, huh? You expect me to believe that in a harvesting facility of this size, they're going to have one weak-arsed soldier that just so happened to be taking the stairs all on its lonesome. It might have been a facility once, but I don't think it is now. It's too quiet. Too damn easy. Now, either one of you is a traitor or you all are, but whatever way it is, I'm going to have to cut you all down right now and get the Hell put of here, because I don't trust a single damn one of you.'

Levi's people glared at us, their guns at the ready. Tension cut through the air, gripping my throat.

Breathe, Evie.

'Levi, for God's sake, man, I just got attacked by that thing,' Taj said. 'Evie just helped kill it. She saved you. You can trust us.'

I stopped myself from looking at him then, because I already knew that wasn't true. We couldn't be trusted, evidently no more than Levi could.

'Trust?' Levi scoffed. 'Where is the trust in the New World? All trust died when the human race did.'

Taj shook his head. 'No. I don't believe that, and I don't think you do either. We're not dead yet. At least, not as long as we get moving and fast. You heard what Lena said, we are all in danger here. We've got to do this and get out now, before it's too late.'

'Yeah? I tell you what I think,' Levi said, his voice taking on a harder, more dangerous edge, the one I knew could have him flipping on a knife's edge. 'I think we were in the danger from the moment we stepped foot inside this place. There's something wrong about this building. Something's really fucking wrong in here. This place reeks of them and yet they're nowhere to be seen, apart from this guy. You people got us traipsing through London for you, searching floor to floor of an empty, fucking building on your say-so, and then this one here comes back telling me my men are gone, yet she managed to escape just fine, coming in here covered in human blood. The blood of my men.'

I looked sharply at Lena. There was something about the way she had collected herself that I didn't like. I spied that same haughtiness she often displayed, that same arrogant expression, but she'd gone from frantic to composed too quickly.

It was a defensive mode. It had to be. She was a police officer, after all, they knew how to switch their emotions to cope with all sorts of situations.

'Levi, come on,' Taj said. 'Just because Lena got away, doesn't mean she's one of them. What if it had been Seb that had walked in here alone, would you have accused him too? Or is it just because she's one of us that it makes her instantly under suspicion?'

'The point is Seb didn't walk back in here, did he? He's dead and my other two people are gone with him. And I only have her account and an empty building to go by.'

'And a dead Grey,' Jace snapped.

'One dead Grey is nothing to the Hive,' Levi said, shifting the direction of his gun so it was pointing directly at him. 'One dies, the Hive provides a thousand more. A thousand more to do its bidding. A thousand more to carry out its instructions. Or maybe, it doesn't need a thousand. Maybe it's got all it needed right here.'

'Levi, damn it, man,' Taj said, looking agitated now, but I couldn't stop looking at Lena.

She had taken a step back, her hands now by her side and she was watching everyone, her calm gaze flicking from one person to the next very subtley, until finally, it came to rest on the one person I didn't want it to.

The one person I'd hoped it wouldn't find.

As I turned my head slightly to look at Tom next to me, I saw his eyes very steadily meet hers and the pain exploded across my chest, as if someone had reached in and gripped my heart and was now squeezing everything out of it – every bit of hope I'd had, every dream I'd dared to dream, every memory I'd tried to hold onto. Tears sprang to my eyes, my throat tightening.

'Ugler i mosen,' I whispered.

Levi looked at me. 'What's that, Evie?' he said, his eyes narrowing.

I took a breath and raised my head.

'Ugler i mosen,' I repeated, louder this time, tasting the bitterness of it on my tongue. I stared directly at Lena and her expression changed instantly, twisting into something cruel and almost inhuman in its hatred. 'It means, owls in the moss, Levi. It means, you're right. This is a trap.'

Without hesitation, I reached for my pistol holstered on my hip, but Lena, having anticpated my move, was already swinging her rifle round. I dived to my left, firing the shot and hearing Tom shouting at me to stop, as Lena pulled the trigger, and the air exploded with the sharp crackle of gunfire. My shot skimmed Lena's arm, and she cried out in pain, staggering to the side.

The whole room seemed to erupt then. I tried to fire off another shot, but Lena was already rushing back up the corridor, disappearing into the darkness as the rival groups turned on each other, no one really understanding what was happening or who was the enemy. I could hear Levi bellowing his orders, the rush of bodies, gunfire, Taj shouting and Tom frantically calling out my name. Hands grabbed at me, pulling me backwards.

'Evie, come on, let's go,' Jace shouted, and I stumbled to my feet with his help, disorientated and broken inside, feeling the betrayal as it gouged deep, feeling everything like it was poison in my veins. I'd been contaminated, infected by my own weakness, my grief, my desperate need for Tom to be resurrected and I'd walked willingly into this trap of theirs. Why hadn't I trusted my own instincts to start with?

Where is the trust in the New World? All trust died when the human race did.

Levi was right.

Levi.

I'd known that Tom's plan to kill Levi and his people was all wrong. I'd felt it so strongly and yet, I'd been complicit in it, weakly raising my hand, just like the rest of them, swept along by the Grey's ability to persuade and cajole, as if he'd glamoured us all. I'd been taken in by it, because I'd wanted to believe him. I'd wanted him to be Tom so fucking much.

I ran with Jace, Taj and the others towards the staircase leading to the floor below. Gav was clutching at his shoulder, a deep red stain soaking through his shirt, pain etched on his face, but he shook off my concern and instead, shot a questioning look my way as he ran.

'Evie, what the fuck? How did you know about Lena?' he said.

'I can't explain now,' I said, 'just run.'

Halfway down, we heard a sound so terrifying that it stopped us all in our tracks and had us turning abruptly to run back the way we came. I'd hoped Lena's account of Greys in the basement of the building had been a lie, but their chilling chorus of alien high-pitched screams echoed up the stairwell, and the thundering sound of them getting closer and closer sent shivers over my flesh like a thousand spiders scuttling over my skin.

'Go, go,' I screamed.

'Where to?' Abby said, frantic. 'Where the Hell are we meant to go?'

We reached the second floor again, now ominously empty, Levi's group having fled God knows where. Maybe they had chased after Lena? Blood peppered the floor where she had been standing and I hoped wherever she'd gone, she was injured bad or that maybe Levi was enacting his own brand of judgement upon her.

Tom was nowhere to be seen.

The building seemed to shake with the sound of the Greys, as if they were swarming the building, crawling up the sides, finding every possible route to get to us.

'Up?' said Jace, quickly scanning the floorplan on the wall. 'There's a fire exit on the top floor, if we can make it there, we might be able to find the way out from the roof.'

It was a long shot, we all knew it, but what choice did we have? Anything was better than standing here and waiting for the Grey army to descend upon us.

Scrambling for the stairs, we fled up towards the next level.

Taj looked back at me as we ran. 'Where's Tom? Evie, where'd he go?'

I shook my head. 'I don't know, just keep going.'

'Evie...'

I picked up my speed, feeling the burn in my leg muscles as we climbed the steps.

Reaching the next level, my pace slowed as if I was wading through water, my gaze inexplicably drawn to the doorway that led to the third floor and the Great Hall itself. The others kept going, and it was only Jace who'd been level with me as we'd ran, who realised that I'd slowed and had now come to a halt.

The building swayed around me. Or was I the one that was swaying? Nausea swam into my throat, a wave of dizziness almost making my legs give way beneath me.

'Evie, fuck's sake, come on!' Jace said, rushing back to me and grabbing hold of my arm, trying to pull me with him.

I blinked. Took a breath.

'No... wait,' I said, trying to struggle free from his grasp. 'I have to...'

What? What did I have to do?

Jace placed his palms on my face and dragged my gaze back to him. 'Lara, snap out of it! Stay with me now. I don't know what the fuck is going on with Lena or where Tom is, but we can't stay here. We have to go.'

'Tom...' I began, instantly losing what I was going to say, all thoughts fading from my head.

Tom. He was on the ground. There was a creature... a monster... and it was doing something to him... it was....

'What is it?' Jace said, his eyes wide with panic. 'Evie, whatever it is, whatever is happening, we can sort it out, okay? But I need you to keep moving, yeah? We need to get out of here.'

I stared back at the doorway. What was it that Levi had said about this place?

'There's something wrong about this building,' I repeated. 'There's something really wrong in here. Can't you feel it?'

He gripped the tops of my arms. 'Yeah, I'll tell you what's wrong – thousands of little Grey men, all coming to fucking kill us, Evie. Now stop dicking around and let's at least try and get the fuck out of here!'

Thump-thump-thump.

I heard it then. No. Felt it. Whatever was wrong with this place was here. On this floor. Right through the doors. And whatever it was, I needed to...

I pulled away from Jace.

'You should go,' I said, staring blankly at him. 'Go.'

'What the fuck?' Jace said, trying to grab hold of me, but I pushed at him hard, tugging out of his grip and ran towards the huge double doors that marked the entrance to the third floor.

I could hear it, feel it, stronger now, that same heartbeat. A deep, resonating thrum that vibrated through the building as if it was breathing in and out. In and out. Why couldn't Jace feel it? Why couldn't they all feel it?

Thump-thump-thump.

The foyer beyond was empty, but instinctively my legs carried me onwards, and all the while the building breathed around me, as if it knew I was here and was waiting.

'Evie, stop,' Abby said, running to my side and trying to grab my arm. 'What are you doing? This is madness, please stop.'

But I was already pushing on the door to the Great Hall.

'Oh my god...' Abby gasped and behind her, the others came stumbling through the doors, their pleas for me to stop fading into nothing as they mirrored Abby's shock.

The bright, almost ethereal light radiated throughout the hall, cascading down from the domed ceiling above.

Standing in the centre of the room, just in front of the raised dais where the orchestra used to play during Central Hall's live music events, Levi and his people were gathered, their heads turned upwards, jaws slack with awe. Seb lay slumped on the floor, having taken a shot to the side, blood pumping from the wound and Mali desperately trying to stem the flow with her jacket, but even they couldn't stop themselves from looking up.

Walking slowly, steadily, up the aisle, I followed the trail of what must have been Seb's blood, dark stains forming a path along the once-plush, scarlet carpet. I passed through Levi's people, right past where Levi himself stood, who reached for me weakly, his arm hovering in the air as I kept going, until I made it up the steps to the stage. I stopped there, right by the edge, straining my neck to look, trying to take it all in.

Thump-thump-thump.

This was it. This was what I had felt. This is what had drawn me to this place.

It knows I'm here.

The thought came from nowhere then, so strongly that panic hit me suddenly, gripping me with its long, thin fingers, digging deep into flesh, muscle, bone, veins.

It was in my veins.

My pulse raced. All around me the walls seemed to push inwards, the pressure in my ears ballooning as if they might burst. White noise rushed into my head.

Up above, the thick, fibrous membranes that reached down from the maginifcent domed ceiling of Central Hall, bristled as if alive, sending pulses of light cascading over the oily surface of the network of huge white orbs suspended there.

'It knows I'm here,' I said again, and all at once, I knew I'd seen these strange, pulsating orbs before.

I'd seen them.

I remembered. Finally, I remembered.