‘How are your balls?’ Man Bun growled, dousing Harry with rancid breath. ‘What’s happened to your skin lately? I’ve seen leopards with less spots than you.’

As Harry squirmed, Man Bun located a big zit on the back of Harry’s neck and popped it.

‘You’re like human bubble wrap,’ Man Bun teased, squeezing another. ‘I could spend all day popping these.’

‘Piss off,’ Harry moaned, twisting his head and getting his forehead bounced against the door again for his trouble.

Man Bun wiped pus and blood on Harry’s school shirt, then tightened his grip until Harry’s legs buckled.

‘Sit,’ Man Bun ordered, letting Harry go. ‘Face me, legs crossed, hands on head like a good Queensbridge schoolboy.’

Harry shuddered and did as he was told.

‘Lucky for you, the boss told me to take it easy,’ Man Bun said. ‘You’re a man of influence, with your job at Vegas’s number-one locals’ website. I’ve brought you a nice juicy story as a peace offering.’

Harry peered up as Man Bun unlocked his phone. Man Bun tutted as he searched for something, finally flipping it round to show Harry a picture of an old Ford sedan with the front end obliterated.

‘Happened a couple of hours ago. Some poor old guy. Truck coming the other way swerved into his lane as he made his regular trip to the local bowling alley. Shattered pelvis, broken legs. Not sure if he’ll live. You might have spoken to him. Went by the name Earl Everard?’

Harry closed his eyes and gagged.

32 BLOODY LOVE SCIENCE

Charlie spent the afternoon on her bed with the tablet Mango had given her. The unit was a brand-new $600 Vault Tab. It looked like a regular no-brand tablet that you could pick up in Walmart for fifty bucks, but it had hardware encryption chips and ran a version of Android designed for anonymous messaging and browsing.

Mango had sent through a bunch of links, and Charlie got sucked in as she read. Science had always been her escape. When Ed was screaming and Fawn was being impossible, when the trailer stank of unwashed laundry and there was no food in the cupboard.

Charlie would spend entire school holidays hiding in dens reading books and doing crude experiments. Getting top marks in school was the one thing that made Charlie feel that she counted for something, even if the other kids called her a geek.

Her first pre-teen fascination was dinosaurs, then space travel. She experimented with rockets, but when Charlie realised she had as much chance of saving $279 plus tax for a rocket-making kit as she did of being selected as the first woman on Mars, she became captivated with the idea of blowing stuff up with items she could buy for a few dollars, or shoplift from CVS.