No matter how she cut it, she couldn’t see any way forward. To someone as stubborn as Lindsay, it was a bitter blow. But she was no quitter. If she couldn’t go forward, maybe she could go backwards. As soon as Sophie managed to snatch a moment to send her Penny’s final draft, Lindsay decided, it was time to start working in a completely different direction.

Just after seven, Lindsay faced Helen across Stella’s desk, the terminal in front of her switched on, with Lindsay logged in as a superuser. “Okay,” she said. “This is how it goes. Companies like Watergaw need to pay kickbacks and bribes if they’re going to operate in certain countries. Traditionally, the Inland Revenue have taken the view that, while payments like these aren’t strictly tax-deductible, if they go through the balance sheet as commissions paid to third parties, they’ll turn a blind eye and allow the company to offset them against their profits. However, a couple of years ago they announced they weren’t going to allow that any more. In practice, nothing has changed, it’s just that the Revenue have taken a position that means they keep their hands clean. And every now and again, they’ll do somebody, just to keep everybody else on their toes.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know all that,” Helen said impatiently. “I still don’t see how you’re going to use it to nail Guy and Stella. We’re a minnow compared to the multinationals that get away with it every day of the week.”

“Bear with me,” Lindsay said. “This is where it starts to get interesting. There are two separate issues that make it possible to create a scenario that looks very unpleasant for Guy and Stella. First, you have to consider why the tax authorities have been prepared to look the other way. Why do you think that might be?”

Helen shrugged. “Because the companies involved go out there to make a tasty profit? And if the taxman stopped them paying bribes, their nice healthy profits wouldn’t be there to be taxed in the first place?”

“More or less. Traditionally, it’s been the manufacturing and service sectors that have benefited from this selective blindness. That’s because the Revenue are perfectly well aware that if our companies don’t win contracts, they go to our competitors in Europe and America and, increasingly, on the Pacific rim. So not only do we lose taxable profits, we ultimately lose more jobs. Which is not something this government can afford.”

Helen nodded, on familiar ground. “Even if it means turning us into the Taiwan of Europe, outside the Social Chapter and without a single employment right among us.”