Idris laughed aloud. ‘The one with the handlebar moustache who always smelt of stale curry?’ The young woman left the room quickly.

‘Er, yes. That was her. We got married last year,’ said White Coat. He blushed profusely.

An overweight child, his mother hadn’t helped matters by dressing him in short trousers and knitted tank tops, and giving him his lunch in a margarine tub. So, what could the bigger kids do but bully him? Thankfully, the beatings ended when Jia Khan befriended him. Every school kid knew not to mess with the Khan’s children or their friends. Or even friends of their friends. She’d helped him up and handed him his glasses after a particularly nasty encounter, smiling as she told him that his spectacle prescription was similar to hers. That was the day he fell in love for the first time.

White Coat spoke without pausing for breath, as if in a perpetual state of excitement. Today, more so than ever, he was nervous and desperate to impress. ‘It was all my idea, this plant. I came up with it when I was studying for my chemistry degree at Manchester. Where did you go to uni?’ he asked, and then without waiting for an answer continued, ‘You see, I was speaking to Dad about the family business and I told him out and out: smuggling, not something I can do. Dad was disappointed. We didn’t talk for a bit. Then…I came up with my plan!’ White coat’s eyes glistened as he talked. Here was a man who loved his job.

‘The plan being this place?’ asked Idris.

The scientist nodded.

‘We hear Nowak contacted you,’ said Jia. The colour drained from White Coat’s face.

‘I’m a businessman,’ he said. ‘I’m in business to make money.’ Jia smiled at him and nodded, allaying his fears.

‘What did he want from you?’ Idris asked.

‘Their shipment’s already in the system – nothing to do with us. But they were looking for friends to help maintain their supply, clean their money, that kind of thing.’

Jia listened, leaving Idris to ask the questions. ‘What did you tell them?’ he said.

‘I don’t like to turn business away, but I don’t like their methods. It’s dirty. Bad for long-term business. I see myself as a sort of social worker, providing a service of care if you will. Some people need help surviving and if I don’t do it someone else will. But the Brotherhood, they’re dishing out the drug to children, women, no idea of hygiene. Sooner or later these diseases will filter back to our people… So I told them I’m too busy at the moment to take on new work.’

‘Do you know anything about their operations?’