‘Everything in the tray, then step over here.’ A third prison officer reciting his mantra.

Soul destroying, Michael thought. They’ve made these poor sods into automatons.

This time the black tray was larger. One per person. Michael placed his few permitted items at the bottom, followed by his suit jacket, wristwatch and belt. Then he placed the tray into the machine and waited for the tatty conveyor belt to splutter into action.

With his back to Ross, the slowness of the X-ray machine gave Michael time to think. To consider – not for the first time – why he was here at all.

The official answer to that question was a simple one. There are certain cases in which only a Queen’s Counsel was deemed qualified to act. Sometimes they do so alone. Sometimes with a junior barrister to assist. Simon Kash’s was one of those cases: a complicated murder allegation that included elements of revenge, of low-level organised crime and which featured more than one defendant and so carried the risk of what was called a ‘cut-throat defence’.

No, it was clear why the Kash trial required a QC. What bothered Michael was the fact that he held that rank at all.

It was not Michael’s age that made him question his promotion. At thirty-nine, he was certainly one of the youngest barristers to be elevated to Queen’s Counsel, but it was not unheard of. What was unique, however, was the fact that his promotion had come without application or interview.

Although unexpected, Michael had needed no explanation when he had received the news six months earlier. It was certainly not based on merit. He realised that immediately; he had not applied and so his merit could not have been assessed. Instead it was a thank you from a grateful government. A reward for his silence following the events in London and Belfast twenty months ago. Sarah had enjoyed something similar as a response to the news story she had put out in place of the truth. Her career had sky-rocketed, taking her from a CNN cub reporter to one of ITN’s leading correspondents.

Neither of them had asked for the career boost, but in Sarah’s case it was well deserved. For Michael, though, he would have preferred to have reached his new rank the right way. Through recognition of the hard work, dedication and skill that he had shown throughout his life at the Bar. Rather than because he had kept his mouth shut. Without that recognition, he doubted his right to call himself a QC, the one thing he had always wanted to be.

It means a lifetime of not knowing if I’m actually good enough, he had thought.

This had been Michael’s mindset for six months. But now? Now his wavering confidence had been joined by guilt. The background to the Simon Kash case – how Michael had been brought in to it – had made things worse.

‘Step over here please, sir.’

The voice of the fourth security officer broke into Michael’s thoughts.