Delores sighed. ‘Moses.’ Her eyes softened. ‘I did love him, you know. You saw him in the video; you saw the man he was. Who couldn’t love that man? And he loved me … but he loved his precious technology more.’

Voice hardening, she swung her legs up onto the arm of her chair, a jarringly nonchalant move at odds with her steely cool. It reminded Thea of the woman in the video, the one with silver moons on her belt and jangling bracelets.

‘I couldn’t see exactly what you were watching but I know he used to love making those stupid video diaries. Logs, he always called them, like he was Captain sodding Kirk. I thought I’d got rid of them all. So you’ve heard his side. But there are always two, aren’t there? It wasn’t just him, you know. He couldn’t have done it without me. The great genius Moses Ing. But who spent hours reading all the data, hmm? Me. Spreadsheets, funding, even finding Ted – all me. Not the glamorous stuff, I’ll admit. Eternal fucking female problem – we do all the legwork and get none of the glory.’

Her eyes blazed.

‘So yes, when he did what he did – his choice, mind you – and tested it on himself, what could I do? He had to be cared for. Debts had to be paid. Aspire were interested in it, even though it was nowhere near ready, so I made the best choice I could … at the time. I’ve been able to keep him safe.’

‘You were drugging him.’

‘He is a liability to himself.’

‘But it’s easier to steal something from someone too drugged to know what’s going on, right?’ Thea lowered her voice, her heart thumping in her throat. If she was a white-crowned sparrow, she was a sparrow having a conversation with a leopard. ‘I know the real reason for Morpheus. You want to get inside our heads.’

‘Do we? You must know more than me. I’m not in charge of all of this, remember? In fact, soon I will be very much sacked. What the company wants to do with it is their concern.’

‘Mind control?’

‘Hah! Really? That is the stuff of silly sci-fi films. We can’t even get the tech to work properly yet. I thought we’d ironed out all the glitches but, well, we’re finding that REM sleep is a much bigger problem, one we haven’t solved, no matter how hard we try. You’ve seen the result.’