‘A good scientist always keeps a record, eh? Don’t even know what I’m recording here, or why. Guess it’s … Let the records show that Max wanted me to stop and that I wouldn’t, that I can’t, despite knowing how it could be used.’

He stared at the camera for a few moments longer. ‘And let the records show that, if I’m ever not around, she’ll sell the tech to Aspire as soon as she can.’

Eyes grim, jaw set, he reached towards the camera and flicked it off.

Chapter 32

There was no voiceover.

Ted’s sleep diary cut into the footage, a few weeks later. Night vision mode showed him hooked up and sleeping and a little superimposed clock in the corner said the time was 2.38 a.m. At first, it was almost as if Thea was looking at a still photo – there was so little movement, only the digital clock counting off the minutes as they passed. Ten minutes in and Thea almost lost concentration, until, suddenly, just as she was beginning to wonder whether she should start fast-forwarding again, Ted sat up in bed.

Bolt upright.

There was sound on the diary and Thea could hear him breathing, short, panicky breaths as he scrambled back in the bed, thudding against the headboard, speaking so quickly that she couldn’t catch what he said. He put his hands out as if warding something off, then kicked the covers off his feet, bundling the sheets up in a frantic movement. Before Thea could see what he’d caught in the sheets, Ted was up and out of bed, straight to a big window that opened outwards just enough for a person to squeeze through, if they were determined.

Ted was determined.

He climbed onto the sill, still muttering, and opened the window to its furthest point, then he threw the bundle of bedclothes out with such force that it made him wobble.

From another corner a second figure rushed into the room, yelling, ‘Stop!’ It was Moses but though he tried, he couldn’t get across the room fast enough to save Ted as he teetered at the window, his feet twisting and trying to grip the windowsill. He turned to Moses, one arm stretched towards him, his eyes pleading for help but there was nothing Moses could do.

Thea watched in horror.

The diary cut out and Moses’s face filled the screen again, his voice serious.

‘Ted hallucinated during his sleep periods, specifically in the REM part that we’d been using to help him learn the languages. That night you just saw, he said he could see spiders, the big furry ones that can jump, and they were all over the bed covers. So he bundled them up and threw them out of the window. Then threw himself out too.’

Moses paused.