‘Sorry, Mister Faber,’ mumbles the shooter. ‘Won’t do it again.’

Faber’s pointing finger is a fan. ‘I know you won’t. I know you fucking won’t, Wilbur.’

Wilbur? I can’t hold in a chuckle. After all this time, done in by a Wilbur.

Wilbur shoots me a venomous look. ‘Can I kill him first, Mister Faber?’

‘Of course you can. Just wait until . . .’

‘Until you’re outside the door.’

‘Very good. When you hear it click, then fire away. Get rid of the bodies at the smelter.’

Smelter? A word like that makes everything real all of a sudden. So practical.

‘Hey, Faber.’

The attorney waves me away. ‘Too late, Daniel. I have to be in court in an hour. As the judge might say, your appeal is denied.’

Tell him you can get his drugs, suggests Ghost Zeb.

Faber has his hand on the doorknob.

‘I can get your drugs,’ I say. I suppose you could say I blurt the words. A bit more squeak in the promise than I’d like.

The attorney steps slowly away from the door as if a sudden movement could make the knob go click.

‘Say that again, Daniel.’

A fly zapper on the wall sparks as some poor insect gets too close to the light.

‘I said, I can get your product.’

Faber drags a chair across the concrete floor and sits himself down facing me.

‘I suppose it couldn’t hurt to talk.’

CHAPTER 9

So now I’ve got this thing under the leg of my jeans. A security bracelet, Faber called it, quite popular with the celebs. Feels like there’s a mutant beetle clamped on to my ankle, waiting to sink its teeth or claws, or whatever weapons a mutant beetle might possess, into my fibula. It’s a clever little machine, no doubt about it. I’m surprised they’ve even got stuff like this outside the pages of a sci-fi novel.

Faber took great glee from explaining its workings to me. He came across like a techno-fool who knows how this one thing works, and bores the bejasus out of everyone passing on his snippet of know-how.

‘So what we have here, Daniel, is a little electronic insurance policy. Judge friend of mine gave it to me in payment for my opinion on a statutory case he was . . . eh . . . involved in. Homeland are already using them and there’s a strong lobby to snap them on US parolees too, given the percentage of repeat offenders.’

‘Yeah? Spare me the lecture, Faber,’ I said, playing it cool.