Why would Charlie want my skinny legs and spotty face when a guy like that is sniffing around?

‘Just like Starbucks!’ Matt said brightly as Harry stepped into his bedroom.

Harry’s room was at the back of the hillside house, huge windows facing a rocky slope planted with cacti. Matt wore black, as always, and sprawled over Harry’s leather couch, with his laptop resting on his belly so that it wobbled with each breath.

‘Have you seen this insane dog video?’ Matt asked.

Harry pointed at his own laptop on his desk. ‘I don’t mind you hanging out, but I seriously have to crack on with this history assignment.’

‘Your fancy school gives way too much homework,’ Matt said as Harry gave him his coffee. Matt turned his laptop towards Harry and tapped play. ‘It’s eighty seconds – you have to watch this.’

Harry tutted, but was immediately drawn into the CCTV footage. It was an alleyway. Two cops in full protective gear used a door-breacher to smash open a fire exit. Two more cops rushed inside, but within seconds they burst back out, chased by huge brown animals.

‘Are those dogs?’ Harry gasped, watching a second animal bound out. It was three feet high, almost as wide, and it hit the cop so hard he flipped like a bowling pin. ‘Jesus, how strong is that thing!’

Two animals pounced on a female cop and started biting. There was a gunshot as another animal dragged a cop, leaving a streak of blood. The chaos lasted another fifty seconds, ending in a bloodbath, with more officers moving in and shooting the animals.

‘They’re calling them Nightmare Dogs,’ Matt explained. ‘The cops thought they were raiding a lab doing human gene editing. But the owner had a sideline producing nutty dogs for drug dealers. They’re saying these beasts have got traces of DNA from tigers and bulls and all sorts. Twice the weight and four times stronger than an unmodified Dobermann.’

Harry gawped. ‘I wish that had happened in Vegas. I could make a mint out of a video like that.’

‘Dude,’ Matt said, bursting out laughing. ‘One cop is dead, the woman is critical. And you’re worried about Vegas Local!’

‘Just saying …’ Harry said, shrugging defensively. ‘A video like that will get a hundred million hits.’

‘World’s starting to scare me,’ Matt said, shaking his head, then getting a milk moustache from his first mouthful of coffee. ‘Why am I working my guts out at school and spending evenings flipping burgers if we’re all gonna get wiped by mutant viruses or eaten alive by nightmare dogs?’

Harry saw Matt’s point. ‘History sucks,’ he said, snapping the lid of his laptop shut. ‘I’m sick of homework and I already make more money than most of my teachers. Do you wanna go downstairs to the cinema and play a video game or something?’