‘You’re a very resourceful boy, aren’t you?’ she said, smiling. ‘I like computers and electronics,’ Abu replied earnestly. ‘I didn’t steal anything. It was all smashed up.’ Steph lowered herself onto a beaten-up wall outside the shop front of Cloud Electrics and laughed. ‘I wouldn’t worry about that, Abu.’ He still looked at her seriously, not quite knowing what to make of the E-Force rescuer in her cybersuit. ‘Are you really from E-Force? You’re really Stephanie Jacobs?’ ‘Yes and yes,’ Steph replied. Then Abu smiled for the first time since the building had been hit almost three hours earlier. ‘Now,’ Steph said. ‘Are you alone, Abu?’ The kid shook his head. ‘No. There are some grown-ups in the café.’ He pointed along the side of the building towards the Oasis. As they stared, Mohammed and Frank emerged through the doorway. Steph took Abu’s hand and helped him clamber over piles of jagged debris.
