Professor Miranda Cooper was supposed to have left her office by now. She had no idea how Philip had managed to do it, but the snake had obviously pulled in some favours and massaged some files, because she’d been well and truly sacked. She could appeal, of course, but that would take months, and lots of cash. It was a huge risk to take with money she didn’t have, and to go up against a big corporation like Ravensword was practically suicide. She’d never win against their army of lawyers.

But she could do some digging while she still had access to his office. As well as studying anthropology, she took a keen interest in IT and had always been something of a nerd. When Philip had asked her for a favour a couple of years ago, she’d been more than happy to accommodate him. He’d wanted a private computer set up in his office. The tech department at Ravensword was enormous, led by an eminent professor with a Cambridge degree, so she assumed that whatever he wanted the computer for, it wasn’t legitimate. Who was she to care? She was bedding a married man; ethics had been left at the bedroom door on this one.

Tooting’s penthouse suite was deserted and she let herself in to his office. Whenever the boss was away, his staff couldn’t wait to get the hell out of there and left at five o’clock sharp. She was hoping he hadn’t got round to changing the door code yet, and she was relieved when it clicked open. She edged round the enormous mahogany desk, shuddering as she pictured him sitting behind it like a king, barking orders and making little people squirm. She was curious to see what nuggets he was storing on the computer. Of course, it could just be porn, but she had a hunch that a man like Philip Tooting might have his hands dirty elsewhere.

She would love to get hold of something she could use. It didn’t have to be much. Just enough to turn the partners off him for a change. Just enough to make him hurt a little.

She jumped as she heard a noise behind her, but it was only a blind flapping in the breeze from an open window.

She suffered a sudden crisis of faith, realising that Philip would be an idiot to leave incriminating information at his office. Then she remembered that the arrogant idiot would think that no one could get in here without his knowledge. And she’d promised him that her firewalls were bulletproof, and different to those used by Ravensword.