He manoeuvred between stacks of cell phone boxes and slabs of bottled water and dodged the backpacks that had been left in the walkway by two students engrossed in a Skype call. De Payns took a seat, checked for eyes and switched off the computer. He waited until the screen was completely blank before he rebooted it and inserted a USB key which contained a Mozilla program. He launched his internet navigation from the USB key, obeying the Company rule to never navigate from an unknown computer’s browser. Now he opened his Clement Vinier LinkedIn account. It had him as a researcher, AD and director at Capital Films in Paris, with some of his industry skills confirmed by other LinkedIn users. He navigated his account and linked with people, issued ‘likes’ on other film industry workers who were editing and writing, and joined in a discussion among SRF professionals about protectionism in French film—a drawn-out argument that had been active for decades. Then he entered a post about travelling to Pakistan where he was scouting for a shoot on his new film, Lake Forgiveness. He dropped a stock picture of Islamabad on it. He did the same thing on his Facebook account then went into the SRF website and contributed a comment in a blog featuring Frédéric Jouve. Having left a few Clement Vinier crumbs, de Payns ejected the Mozilla USB and cleared the history and cookies seven times. Any less than seven wipes and smart people with good equipment could access his shadow data.

He caught the Metro to Gare du Nord and walked to the Montmartre area, where he found an oldish building now converted to offices. He let himself into the building foyer and cleared the mail from one of the boxes. He sorted through it, binning the junk and opening the two envelopes addressed to Clement Vinier, Capital Films. One offered low-rate credit for business owners and the other was for life insurance.

There was a convenience store on the corner, and de Payns walked in and greeted the Tamil woman behind the counter. ‘Hi, Ezzy, how’s business?’ he asked.

‘Hello, Monsieur Clement,’ she said with a smile. ‘I got the film magazine. Let me show you.’

The short middle-aged woman led de Payns to her magazine section and put one of the publications in his hand. ‘Came in yesterday, and look at date.’

‘It’s the current one,’ said de Payns, clocking the masthead of the American Variety magazine. ‘Well done.’

‘More,’ she said, showing him the English-language Empire and Hollywood Reporter.

‘Great,’ he said, grabbing the Empire and moving back to the counter. ‘I’m scouting locations in Pakistan. I’ll need some reading.’