Presumably the other proxies would be moving around the park. It began to rain. At the same time, almost as though the two events were timed to coincide, there was a general noise of motors starting up, and the attractions – those that were built, anyway – rumbled into life. Lights blinked. Malevolent laughter rang out. Knife hands rose mechanically up and down. There was the distinctive sound of a gallows being sprung, a guillotine and several different species of scream. Not far in the distance was the familiar clanking sound of a rollercoaster beginning its inaugural circuit. Abbott, suddenly robbed of one of his senses, went to full alert, bringing the gun up close to his chest and taking a 360-degree look around himself.

OK, he thought, this changes nothing. You’re still the hunter. You’re still well advised to head for the centre of the park, because that’s where your opponents will also be going. You’re convinced of your combat superiority, but so are they. You think you’re the best, but so do they. We all think it. Now’s the time to find out for sure.

Across the park in the conference room, the Nortons, their assorted assistants and right-hand men, watched each of the proxies begin their game.

‘What’s all this about a video, Mother?’ asked Montana. ‘Something incriminating, is it?’

‘Indeed it is,’ replied Lady Norton. ‘It’s footage that simply cannot be allowed to get out. It would mean the end of our family.’ She looked across at Montana warningly. ‘Our whole family.’

Montana paled slightly. ‘Well, what was it? What sort of footage?’

‘It all happened a long time ago,’ said Lady Norton as though hoping to dismiss the matter. ‘An unfortunate expression of your father’s more base desires.’

And that was it as far as Lady Norton was concerned. Subject closed. Lance nudged Montana, looking at her, whispering, ‘What base desires?’ Montana shrugged, not wanting to go there, no desire to dig into her family’s unspoken and unexplored secrets. Their darkest most disturbing truths.

She thought about Simon, his lifelong history of drug abuse. Her eyes went to the screen where Sergei, the Russian special forces operative, was beginning to make his way through the park, and she willed him on, her thoughts starting to wander. What if she won and were to wield absolute power?

What would she do with her mother then?

‘Well, well, what’s this?’ said Ross, his attention drawn to Clifford’s proxy, Heidi, who wore the bright blue. Except that she was, at that moment, stripping off her overalls.

‘Um . . .’ said Ross, looking towards the lawyer Jeffrey Coombs, ‘invigilator? Is that allowed?’

‘I see no reason why not.’

‘Shouldn’t this have been confirmed prior to the game beginning?’ said Lady Norton.