‘Yesterday, you said you didn’t have a single real friend,’ Harry said. ‘I’m not exactly fighting pals off since I moved here. So, I could write you, or send stuff you need like chocolate, or deodorant?’

‘Are you saying I stink?’

‘No,’ Harry blurted, but then Charlie laughed and he realised she was messing. ‘I don’t know how this stuff works. Like, what I’d be allowed to send, or how far away you’ll be. And visits. Is it only family members that can visit?’

‘Could you bake me a cake with a gun inside?’ Charlie asked dryly.

Harry’s balls throbbed when he laughed. ‘I’m sure they’d never suspect that …’

‘I’ve spent too much time with Ed to make many friends and Fawn’s a total bitch. So, it might be nice to hear that British accent occasionally.’

‘Cool,’ Harry said.

‘I think my three minutes are up,’ Charlie said. ‘I’m being moved out of the police precinct soon, I think. So I’ll try and call when …’

The phone went dead and Harry stood still for ages, holding the ice pack against his back and thinking about Charlie’s giant blue eyes.

PART TWO

TWO YEARS LATER

13 SNor

A brief history of the SNor outbreak

By Charlie Croker (Inmate B3790)

Synthetic Norovirus K (SNorK) was originally developed as a treatment for stomach cancer by scientists at the University of Zurich.

While regular norovirus breeds in the human stomach, causing diarrhoea and vomiting (commonly known as stomach flu), the Zurich scientists used gene-editing techniques to create a modified virus that would only attack cancerous cells.

Early synthetic norovirus trials reduced levels of cancer, but most patients’ immune systems destroyed the modified virus before it was completely effective. To combat this, scientists developed the ‘K’ version. In addition to the anti-cancer modifications, SNorK added genes from another virus capable of surviving in the human gut for up to two weeks.

In early trials, SNorK proved effective, surviving in the stomach long enough to completely cure stomach cancer in seven out of eight patients. All patients treated with SNorK had to stay under strict quarantine while undergoing treatment with the experimental virus.

This included the incineration of clothes, medical equipment and patients’ bodily waste. All medical staff dealing with trial patients were inoculated against SNork, and all patients had to be clear of the virus for two weeks before being allowed to leave the research facility.

Despite the success of these trials, SNorK treatment was never licensed for general use. Medical bodies around the world agreed there was too much risk of the modified virus mutating, or that it would recombine with regular norovirus. This would risk producing a norovirus strain that survived in the gut for up to two weeks like SNorK, while producing the virus’s normal symptoms of severe vomiting and diarrhoea.