39
Sam, Vicky, and the others crowded into Eric’s cluttered flat on the north side of the building to try to get a better view. The place was a pigsty, the carpet covered with rubbish. ‘Your friends, eh?’ he said as he showed them through. The three of them stepped out onto the balcony, bracing themselves against the cruel autumn wind.
‘What have they done?’ Vicky said.
‘We don’t know for sure it was them,’ Sam said. ‘It could have been anything.’
‘Oh, come on, Sam, you’re supposed to be the realist. You know as well as I do, there’s nothing else over there.’
There was a pall of dirty black smoke climbing up from the general vicinity of the Monument and the Tower of London, its belly lit up by the flames blossoming below. They couldn’t make out details from this distance, but Vicky di
