It is possible. He could do this. It is done by hacks citing hypnotic power as the culprit, but that is the greatest lie of all.

It is not real.

Hypnosis does not exist.

It is a case of insidiously massaging a notion within the subject without actually mentioning the true details of the deed so that they arrive at the conclusion you have set out for them.

As my hand moves closer, you will feel the keys start to throb in your hand.

Artaud coughs again and then takes a large drag on his cigar. He blows out a plume of smoke and shuts his eyes like he’s had an orgasm.

He doesn’t have long left.

Neither do The People of No Choice that he has sent to the top of the bridge.

Now wait.

128

It is only 2.7 miles from the ERMA offices to Tower Bridge.

The fastest route is to remain on the South Bank, past the Waterloo Campus of King’s College and stay on that straight road until you can turn left over Southwark Bridge. Then take a right and follow the A3211, passing Tower Hill Memorial on your way to the A100, which crosses straight over the Thames at Tower Bridge, where Artaud is standing and smoking and coughing and smiling.

It’s the quickest way there and it takes twenty-one minutes.

In a police car, it will be faster.

Detective Sergeant Pace still has a chance.

129

Four people emerge on top of one of the walkways that links both sides of Tower Bridge.

Artaud sees them first because he is looking up, anyway. Most of the other people on the bridge are shoegazing.

The old, dying doctor does not say a thing. He simply points towards the top of the tower. One person follows his finger and cranes their neck upwards. Then another. And another. Until people are stopping. They are pulling out their headphones but leaving on their screens, swiping to the camera setting.

Onlookers don’t know what to do. Shouting up at them seems futile in this wind. And startling a person so close to the edge feels like the wrong call.

Artaud spots a man in his early thirties. The man stops and pulls his right headphone to one side and looks up as two more people step outside. He looks at his watch, rolls his eyes, places his headphone back over his ear and continues to walk.

Someone else can deal with it. That’s what he is thinking.

There are six more people on the back walkway. It’s difficult to see them but it means that they are all almost out. This is happening.

People are in the road now and cars have had to stop. Drivers are getting out to shout at pedestrians to get out of the fucking way but are halted in their tracks by the image of the people above.