‘It’s difficult this week,’ he said with a sigh, as if I should feel sympathy for him. ‘Not a sliver of daylight …’

‘I appreciate that, and I really am sorry,’ I said. ‘I promise it won’t take long, if you can possibly spare just half an hour in the next day or two.’

‘Well, where are you now?’ he asked, as if I hadn’t just told him. ‘If you can make it over here in the next hour or so, we could still do it.’

I swallowed. ‘It might be tricky, I’m quite a way out.’

A sigh. I was pushing my luck. ‘It’s best we get it done today.’

‘OK, I’ll get moving now,’ I said. There was no reply, no closing acknowledgement. The call was over. I put the phone back in my pocket with quaking hands.

‘We should get moving,’ I said to Pierce, thinking more about my empty fridge, cold fear twisting inside me. Even within me, in my innermost core, there was a lie – that I would make every effort to get to De Chauncey’s office in Shoreditch – and, deeper, the truth – that I would not, and was already planning the heavy session I would need to anaesthetise myself against the consequences of that, and the rest of today’s events. I wanted to believe the lie. It would be a really heavy session. ‘This weather …’

‘There may be another way around,’ Pierce said. ‘We might be able to get a better view, even if we can’t get much closer.’

I looked up at the plume. A helicopter clattered overhead, tufting and tugging the sides of the column. Was it weakening, or simply losing contrast as the sky around it descended and darkened?

‘Light’s going,’ I said.

‘That might make the effect all the more dramatic,’ Pierce said. ‘There was a turning, back the way we came – if we go along there, we’ll be able to find another way back down to the river and the fire.’

‘No, I need to get back – that call …’

Pierce shrugged. ‘OK, let’s get back. It’d be good to get out of this.’

The puddles alongside the road had deepened and widened and the lorries, headlights on, tyres hissing, had sped up in the wet. To avoid getting drenched, we had to wait more often, and longer, and sometimes had to sprint.

‘It’s a shame to come out here and not to see a lick of flame,’ Pierce said.

‘Looks like they’ve got the place locked down tight,’ I said. ‘I doubt we’d be able to see anything.’