‘That is quite impossible. There can be no cancellations. The consequences of acknowledging any kind of deficiency in the process would be … catastrophic.’

‘Well, we’ll see about that. I’m going to take this to the top.’

‘You mean Nishizaki?’

‘I do.’

‘Drawing this to his attention would be … most unwise.’

‘That’s not how I see it, Vinod. How I see it is he’ll have to make a choice. Either he fesses up to your clients or I do whatever I have to do to protect my reputation.’

‘What might that be, Michaela?’

‘I don’t know. Media exposure, maybe.’

‘Not a good idea. Not a good idea at all.’

‘Exactly. Which is why I confidently expect Mr Nishizaki to see reason.’

‘I’m really not sure—’

‘’Bye for now, Vinod.’

She ended the call and smiled grimly at Wada. ‘Catch the drift of all that, did you?’

‘I think so,’ said Wada.

‘Maybe you’re going to tell me I should never have got into bed with people like Nishizaki and Driscoll. You’d be right. But I knew that anyway. The money was just too good to turn down. The research I can fund with it … will be transformative in my field. Would be transformative, that is. I can kiss goodbye to my academic career if it gets out that I’ve aided and abetted a scam like this.’

‘What exactly did you believe you were doing for Quartizon?’

‘Identifying areas of land within the North Circumpolar region that will become viable for cultivation and habitation as a result of climate change later this century. That’s why the project was called Emergence in the first place. Because out of the carnage climate change will wreak elsewhere, some exciting opportunities will open up in the soon to be no longer frozen north. Quartizon’s plan was to acquire options on as much of such land as possible and sell the options to the highest bidder. Who were those bidders? The sovereign wealth funds of rich countries likely to be hardest hit by global warming for starters, I imagine, like Middle Eastern oil-producing states awash with money but surveying a parched future and not liking the view. Plus stupendously wealthy individuals hoping to bequeath a high-latitude bolthole to their grandchildren. How Quartizon hoovered up the options was none of my concern, but, looking at many of the locations in the catalogue file, they must have bribed government officials to release state-owned land, unless the title legalities are fake, which I suppose is possible. Because a lot of the land’s fake, after all. It doesn’t exist in a viable condition and is never going to, for the reasons you heard me spell out to Hardekar. You get it, Wada? They grafted a great big con on to my closely reasoned projections.’

‘Do you really intend to complain to Nishizaki?’