Petra tried to keep her eyes on the man’s face as he wiped a crumb off his upper lip and contorted his nostrils to check for residue, but she couldn’t help glancing away. It was only when he’d turned back to his party and they’d all moved away from the glass that she would speak. ‘All that stuff about exposing Olivia’s secrets, the danger you’d get into – that was rubbish, wasn’t it? You’ve been working for Metamuse all along, haven’t you?’

Ellis spoke to the glass, his eyes trained forward. ‘I really did want to warn you. I hoped you would stay away.’ Now he regarded her with a look of tired resignation. ‘But I should have known you’d come anyway, that the pull would be too strong. As I told you, Olivia gets what Olivia wants.’

‘Why do you work for her? You don’t seem to like her.’

‘In this industry? If we had to like everyone we worked with, we’d never get a job.’

Petra shook her head, unimpressed with his cynicism.

‘Besides,’ he continued, ‘look at this set, the production technology. It’s streets ahead of any other company. It’s amazing to be involved with this. She and Rashida pay for the best.’

‘That’s something I’ve been wondering. How do they afford all this? How can they even break even on shows like this?’

‘Olivia had a good amount left over. She came from a monied family, unlike Rashida. She wanted it all to go into the company. I manage the money for her.’ Ellis Brown shrugged. ‘I suppose there’s not really all that much to do with loads of money when you’re dead. Why not fund the arts while you’re fulfilling your immortal grudges?’

Petra turned to look Ellis in the face, but he wasn’t smiling. ‘You all keep saying that. The effects may be great, but she’s not dead really.’

Ellis puffed a breath out and ground his jaw. ‘You are so bloody stubborn. You’re going to miss a lot in your life with those blinkers. I feel sorry for you.’ Petra said nothing, so Ellis continued. ‘There’s that old cliché, but death really does become us. After the Fallout Ball, Rashida muddled along in functional mediocrity all her life, until she died. And look at her now – inciting quite the little flare-up of cross-media interest. You may not like them, you may not like their methods, but you have to admire them.’