The prime minister was being transferred between prisons when a group of masked gunmen attacked the van in which he and his guards were travelling. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the atrocity. BBC News ‘Whatever happened to you?’ It was Scarlet, leaning out of her sports car in the light of a thin yellow dawn. I’d been wandering the road for hours, barely noticing the surrounding blur of fields and pylons, sheep and trees. She was looking at me curiously. I remembered that my hands and face were flecked with blood, that my dress was torn, my hair wild. ‘It was the goddess,’ I said at last. ‘She came to me again, in a vision. And then I, er, decided to go for a walk. To clear my head.’ ‘Well, I’ve been looking for you.’ ‘Did . . . did Aiden ask you to?’ ‘I haven’t seen him since the party.’ Scarlet drummed her fingers distractedly on the wheel. ‘Look, don’t take this the wrong way or anything, but I think that maybe you coming to stay with us was a mistake after all.
