I look up to see the same nurse who’d deposited me in this zoo twenty minutes ago. I’m relieved to see she’s talking to me. I follow her down a corridor painted in Faint Apricot Vomit and start to feel a little queasy myself. And I’m sure I can feel the kid’s gaze on the back of my head, boring into me all the way till we stop outside Dr Nellie de Vries’ office. The nurse knocks for me – maybe I don’t look capable? – then disappears back down the corridor.

Nellie’s at her desk, sitting in profile in front of a tall oblong window overlooking a courtyard. She types a few more sentences, then gets up and walks over and we hug. Maybe I hold on a little too tight because afterwards she holds me at arm’s length and asks me if I’m all right. I toy with telling her about the houseboat and Kush, but I’m not sure I can stand going over it again. And anyway, it’s the last thing Nellie needs. So I skip it, and lie.

‘Just a headache.’

‘What happened?’ she asks, pointing to my jeans as I take the seat she offers me.

‘There’s a kid out there who wanted to kill me. Luckily the only weapon he had available was a crayon.’

‘Let me guess, boy, five years old. Black hair. Snot running down his nose?’

I nod.

She shakes her head. ‘I saw them waiting out there earlier; they’re my next appointment. They’ve come over from the UK. Can’t get what they need there. She got into trouble with the law for helping her kid. Pretty barbaric really. Luckily I’ll be able to help, but only as long as they stay in the country.’

‘That’s gotta be tough.’

‘Hard to get a job unless you’ve got at least some Dutch, so really I don’t know how long they’ll be here. Anyway,’ she says, stretching her arms over her head and yawning. ‘Sorry, been a long one. But …’

She reaches over to her desk, sorts through a small pile of paper and locates what she’s after.

‘Here, this is all I could find. Not much to go on.’

I take the sheet. It’s A4, and has passport-sized photos of twelve people, each one assigned with a number.

‘Who are they?’

‘These are the people who took part in the trial, the volunteers. This was just for the staff on the ward at the time to keep track of who was given what.’