Meera shakes her head emphatically. ‘I was brought in to try to improve your condition, Charlie. To improve conditions for all of the people who had been introduced to the agent. And I think I have done that. These crimes that you’re talking about, that’s not me. I’m too busy working in my lab to plot anybody’s destruction, even if I were so inclined. And I’m not so inclined. I didn’t know that O was doing these things. We didn’t speak much, to be honest.’

‘But you knew you were working on me and Daphne. You knew you were getting in our heads, literally and figuratively.’

‘I have to gather information about how the agent is working, and I have to interact with it. That’s the advantage of using a tiny engine as opposed to a drug. I can work on it while it’s in situ, sending back information continuously via your headware. Now, if my efforts are translating into some sort of dream event for you, well . . . I wouldn’t know.’

‘No, you wouldn’t. Because you’ve never been in my position. But I’ll tell you one thing. I’m not the same person I was when I met O. I’m not afraid of anything you can throw at me because fundamentally you don’t have the courage to put yourself on the line like I do. So if you want to carry on with this work, then I suggest you think about what you’re prepared to do to get on board with me. Because I’m your partner now. I’m not going to let you take over. And I’m done running. I’m so done, Meera.’

She sits back and folds her arms across her chest. Clearly she’s not in the habit of being scolded.

‘By tweaking in situ, I mean I cured your narcolepsy,’ she says.

I flinch. ‘You mean you spiked my tea.’

Her eyes flash defensively. ‘Only the one time, when I came to the flat, and only because O told me you didn’t know and asked me not to upset you. Before that, I gave the revised agent to O and I had no idea what the arrangement was between the two of you. If it was involuntary on your part, that’s on her, not on me.’

‘You should be ashamed of yourself.’

‘Well, maybe I am! I am ashamed. I’m sorry about how it went down. Either way, you should find you don’t have trouble staying awake any more. I expect something like that will be life-changing.’

‘Thank you,’ I say angrily.

‘You’re welcome. And you’re right: I don’t have the courage. I don’t even go on roller coasters and I don’t watch horror films. So kudos to you for what you do, Charlie. But I’m not your enemy.’