‘Everything in science is too specialised,’ said Lucy. ‘People assume that scientists are intellectuals, but very few of them have an overview, or a critical approach to their methodologies, they’re just too busy securing funding or tenure or zapping individual cells in the Caenorhabditis elegans nematode worm with laser beams – this is a one-millimetre worm, so we’re talking about precision work – looking for that single-cell death-inhibitor.’

‘A single-cell death-inhibitor – do you know the guy in charge of that research? I want to meet him. Get it on the schedule.’

‘What time shall I meet you?’ asked Lucy, with strenuous neutrality.

‘The plane lands at Farnborough at seven a.m. – isn’t it strange the way people more often say “my plane lands” when they’ve rented a seat on a commercial flight and more often say “the plane lands” when they own it?’

‘Amazing,’ Lucy confirmed.

‘Meet me there. The driver can pick you up on the way.’

Before Lucy could say anything, she realised that Hunter had ended the call.

‘What a wanker,’ she said, chucking the phone on to the cushion beside her – on to Hunter’s cushion. Staying in his flat made her anger more inhibited and more compelling at the same time. Her pulse was throbbing in her neck and wrists. He had been so seductive during the recruitment period, making her feel that her science background would be put to better use, that she would be bringing all sorts of benefits to the world and, of course, by offering to double her income. That combination, and the severance package, if she were dismissed for any non-criminal reason, made her ignore all the warnings she heard about Hunter’s ‘colourful’ past and his ‘explosive’ character. Now she was living under the tyranny of his whims and his threats … Oh, Christ, it was happening again.

The signs were subtle for the moment, but she knew with absolute certainty that she was starting to have another panic attack. She managed to sit down next to her discarded phone just as the heaviness took over. Gravity seemed to have suddenly been multiplied in one place, dragging her attention to the right side of her body while the rest of her looked on helplessly from above, like a mother watching her child screaming to be released from the adhesive wall of the spinning barrel in a fun fair. Then the spasms came, slowly at first, but picking up pace as the attack reached its peak. Midway through, she felt an alien effervescence rushing down the right side of her body, as if a soda syphon had been discharged into her lower back. It was over in a minute, but Lucy was left feeling dazed, with an enfeebled and shaky leg and a foot that remained numb for several minutes.