Rab is trying to contain his erection but he has never been able to hold it together around Bee. The woman unravels him – she can do it to almost anyone. Peter gazes at the fox adoringly.

– To touch them.

– They do?

– They beg me for all kinds of things at that point.

– Like what?

– I don’t know… a cock that I wear, you know, hard up inside them, or they like me to slap their face while I sit on them, punch it even, or place their face between my tits, or their dick. Sometimes they want a hard ball gag in their mouth so they can suffocate to the point of passing out just as they cum, or they want me to spit on their balls and drag them around and humiliate them – it’s disgusting.

– That’s no way to be with a lady, Peter says.

– That’s right. I don’t like it. In fact, I have a very low tolerance for men other than my husband. Dora Noyce’s cousin did too – she only ever punished them, which is why we know she didn’t come to make films with you willingly. Also, to go back to your initiation ceremony – they say – correct me if I am wrong – if you ever break one of your thirty-six oaths – or worse, let one of your blood brothers go to prison for one of your crimes – you would be struck by five thunderbolts, do they not?

– They do.

– Well, Peter, sweet man – today you can call me Zeus!

Bee’s last whisper is replaced with the sound of a blade as she glides the head out of her cane and stabs Peter in the throat, five times rapidly – two blood tears slide down his face. She spins and sticks another blade between Raymond’s eyes. As both men sink to the floor, she grabs them by the hair – stands with one head – in either hand.

1989

Flat 8F8

Ivor (37) after all these years

ESME IS still asleep on him. Four huge tanks appear on the telly. The newsreel reads: Tiananmen Square, Beijing. The footage is unbelievable. One solitary man stands in front of the tanks. They face him. Guns up. The man refuses to move. The rolling bar at the bottom of the screen estimates – over 100,000 students are taking part in protests. Hunger strikes. Mass gatherings. The man in front of the tanks has a bag in each hand. He was on his way home, maybe. He’d had enough. Of watching ordinary people suffer. The newsreel states that protestors are demanding economic liberalisation, democracy, and rule of law. They want to be treated respectfully. That’s what they want. Hu Yaobang – who stood for freedom and democracy – was forced to resign, and died. The protestors, many of them students – protest twice as hard in his name. Seven demands are made.