But then they were quiet, then quieter. His wife sat beside him, saying nothing, asking nothing because that was her way, the way their marriage ran smoothly, and for the last year or so, since the men had first appeared in the shop, that was the way he knew was safest. It had begun easily enough, with the occasional letter or small packet left overnight, or for a couple of days, and all he had had to do was leave it alone. They would come to collect. They always did. He convinced himself that he had no idea what the packets contained, and lying to himself had come easily, until the time when they had asked for more. He was a pharmacist, he knew how to do this or that. How to mix x with y, how to cut larger things up to make several smaller, how to grind and crush and turn to powder, his skills were what they needed as well as his storage space. And his silence. He had not known how to extricate himself by then, they had wound invisible threads so tightly, with such intricacy, and that was when he had realised and started to make plans, though only in his head, for what he could do if it escalated. Still, for another six months, it had not. The same two men had come and gone, never with any warning, always with the air of threat hanging round them, one that he could smell and taste and sense. Fear. That was their weapon. They were experts at fear.

He had always been aware that if he had to leave it would be in a hurry and unexpectedly, his plans had been based on that, so that when it came, he was prepared, calm even. And after all, it had not been very difficult.

His wife had turned on the car radio not to news or chit-chat but to soft music. His children were tapping soundlessly on their games. Traffic was heavy for the first thirty miles or so, but when it eased, Wang picked up speed and so the distance between them and home widened, and that between them and safety lessened with every mile.

There hadn’t been time to ask if his instincts were correct, if he was doing the right thing, the fact that he had seen the men drive past but not come into the shop, and then later, both sitting in the car parked up the side road when he had gone to get his coffee, had frightened him. They had always just appeared, gone into the storeroom and out again, so different behaviour was troubling, though he could not have said exactly why, and the next time he had looked out across the square, the car had gone. He had worried about it all afternoon, which had been quiet, so he had had time. He had checked the store but there was nothing.