She used her left hand to hold her right steady as she watched the opening remarks, the sound relayed crisply through the handset’s wireless earphones.

The voice speaking was American; East Coast, like Sarah, but maybe two hundred miles further south. ‘Ladies and Gentlemen, I can sadly confirm that at four p.m. Greenwich Mean Time, the one fifty-five p.m. Flight PA16 from London Heathrow to New York JFK lost contact with control over the Atlantic Ocean.’

Why’s David Edleson chairing this? Sarah wondered.

She hadn’t known that the Pan-Atlantic Airlines CEO was even in the UK.

Her thought was interrupted by the feeling of a physical presence beside her. It made her look up, away from the screen and towards a uniformed British Airways pilot standing a few feet away.

He glanced at Sarah as he lit a cigarette, careful to make eye contact. Sarah’s own eyes must have flitted towards the lit smoke, encouraging him to hold the packet out towards her.

‘Thanks.’ Sarah reached out and took a Marlboro from the open pack. ‘One way to warm up, huh?’

The man smiled back and held up a silver lighter, its flame ready.

Well, that’s been tried and tested.

Sarah could spot a well-honed flirting technique when she saw one. She would let him down lightly in a moment. But first things first. She put the cigarette to her lips, leaned towards the flame and inhaled.

It did not have the effect she was expecting. The taste of the smoke hit first. The same taste she was used to, and yet somehow completely different. It caused a wave of her earlier nausea to flow over her. An urge to throw up that she barely suppressed.

Pull yourself together, Sarah. You’re all out of mouthwash!

It was an easy demand to make. A harder one to obey. She hadn’t reacted that way to a cigarette before. She threw it away and took a deep breath. Her suspicions about the source of her nausea were looking increasingly likely.

‘Are you OK?’

The pilot’s voice sounded confused. He looked it, too, when Sarah glanced towards him. Flustered and still feeling unwell, she did not think before she answered.

‘Yeah. Yeah, sorry. I just shouldn’t be smoking. I . . . I’m pretty sure I’m pregnant.’

She felt herself freeze as she heard her own words, the first time she had said them aloud. And who was she sharing it with? Some guy who, moments before, thought he was on track to pick her up.

The final thought amused her, and, for the first time in days, Sarah felt herself smile.

‘Which I guess is the last thing you wanted to hear, right?’

Sarah opened the door to the conference room and placed herself against the back wall.

David Edleson’s statement was coming to an end. She had missed almost all of it, but that did not matter. The content was always the same. Sarah could have written it for him, from memory.