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familiar deep voice, “until an hour ago. Something came up and I had to come back.”
    I don’t know your headmaster, obviously, but I’m fairly sure that Michael isn’t like any headmaster you’ve ever come across on Earth. That’s probably because he’s an archangel, one of the major powers behind the Agency. Michael also has special responsibilities for Earth, so he’s constantly zooming off to historical hot spots.
    He sounded very tired, and unusually worried. “I’ll get straight to the point. We need two volunteers for an urgent soul-retrieval.”
    My inner angel sighed with relief. So t hat’s what was going on!
    “Jessica Lightpath suggested I approach you,” Michael was saying. “She was impressed with your performance on her course.”
    If I’d been properly awake, I’d have launched straight into my sad story about giving up trouble-shooting. But Helix just jumped in with both feet. “Have you asked Reuben?”
    “Reuben’s next on my list,” said Michael.
    “Then tell him I’m in,” I said briskly.
    Having kicked me out of my nice warm bed, Helix was now making me hunt through my cupboards. I balanced the phone in the crook of my neck, while I hunted for the well-worn combats I thought I’d hung up forever. “So whose soul are we meant to be retrieving?”
    “Her name is Tsubomi.” Michael pronounced it Sue-bo-mee.
    “She sounds Japanese.” I was trying to climb into my combats without putting the phone down.
    “Yes, she’s from twenty-first century Japan.”
    “So what’s the cosmic protocol? Do we go to Japan first, or buzz directly to Limbo or what?”
    But my inner angel was moving too fast even for Michael.
    “Melanie, I think I should warn you that Tsubomi’s situation is not as straightforward as the scenarios you practised on the course.”
    Helix and I had finally succeeded in zipping up my trousers one-handed. “OK, you’ve warned me. So what is the situation exactly?”
    There was a weird silence on the other end, then Michael said, “This girl isn’t actually dead.”
    There were four of us in the viewing suite. Me, Reuben, Michael and Sam, Michael’s assistant. The lights were off, so I didn’t see Reuben’s expression when Tsubomi’s face flashed up on the screen; I just heard him catch his breath.
    Tsubomi was one of the most beautiful girls I have ever seen, but her face was shockingly empty. The mysterious inner light that made Tsubomi “Tsubomi”, had gone.
    A forest of wires and tubes connected her to the beeping gurgling machines that were keeping her body alive.
    I swallowed hard. You see, I knew this girl. I can’t tell you where I knew Tsubomi from ; like, if we’d both been temple dancers in a past life. I knew her, that’s all. I could feel invisible cosmic strings running from her struggling heart to mine, and it really upset me. Because things didn’t look good for Tsubomi; they didn’t look good at all.
    I was only thankful we weren’t at her bedside for real. Seeing it on-screen was distressing enough. This young girl was literally on the brink of death, and two furious women were arguing across her bed. They were squabbling, if you can believe this, about who was to blame for Tsubomi taking an accidental overdose. Don’t ask me how that was supposed to help.
    One of the women, who looked like she might possibly be Tsubomi’s mum, was practically spitting. “It’s obvious you’ve never had children! You should have given the tablets to me. I’d have made sure she took the correct dose.”
    The other woman wore clingy leather that probably cost a bomb, but made her look disturbingly like Cat Woman. She was so angry you could hear her jewellery rattling. “The girl was exhausted, you stupid COW. We’d signed a million-dollar contract. She couldn’t do the fashion shoot with freaking great shadows under her eyes.”
    “LOOK at her!” shrieked Tsubomi’s mum. “Does my daughter look like she can do a fashion shoot to you!