Mitchell had a look on his face like he was making his mind up whether or not to tell him something. ‘If I tried to explain it right now, it would complicate things more than they really need to be. All you need to remember is that, from my perspective, you’ve already gone into Arcorex and pulled me out.’

Jeff had shaken his head in irritation. ‘Okay, okay. I get it. It’s just hard to remember sometimes that all of this has already happened for you.’

‘Once we’ve got him out, you and me are going to take him back to the motel, and leave him everything he’ll be needing to get himself to Copernicus.’

Jeff had finished the last of his coffee and realized his hands were shaking. The whole thing sounded absurd beyond words, yet one glance at the TriView was all he needed to know otherwise. He looked back at Mitchell, and felt as if the whole universe had somehow shrunk to encompass only the Formica-topped table at which they sat, while the rest of the world had been reduced to a blurred video loop running almost forgotten in the background.

‘That simple?’ said Jeff, with a slight twist of his lips.

‘I remember waking up in that motel room,’ Mitchell had continued, clearly not appreciating the joke. ‘I headed straight for Florida, because I could see from the news feeds what was coming. I spent – will spend – a couple of days setting up a false ID, so I could get past Copernicus’s security. That’s one reason I was able to get fake UPs for both of us as quickly as I did.’

‘You said something went wrong,’ Jeff queried.

‘Getting to the Florida Array was more difficult than you can imagine,’ said Mitchell. ‘By that time vast crowds were already gathering there, but I managed to make it through them. I faked my way past the security cordons, and all the way through to the Lunar Array, except ASI agents arrested me soon after I got there. But I managed to escape, stole a spacesuit and made my way out on to the surface. By then things were starting to change fast. The face of the Earth was becoming blanketed beneath dense grey clouds. I managed to get to one of the R&D labs in the middle of all the panic, and sealed myself inside one of the cryogenic units.’

Jeff had shivered at the look on Mitchell’s face. Even though he was describing the end of the world, his expression remained soft, almost dreamy.

‘And that’s what saved your life, while every other living thing on the Moon and Earth was wiped out?’