Ever since they’d come aboard, she’d been aware of the constant shifting of the ship at anchor as the tide continued to turn. Down here, the movement was accompanied by creaking and groaning sounds, and the scraping of metal on metal.

It was as though the dead bones of the ship were rattling.

‘We’re coming to the first locus,’ Erling warned them.

They turned a corner in the metal staircase to see a door that led into a box-type room just above the lower deck. And it was there the smell they’d been living with recently hit Rhona again. Chrissy caught it too because she muttered as much from behind her mask.

Erling pushed the door wider, so that they might view the interior.

The man was seated on a swivel chair facing a wall of screens. The fire had damaged both him and the computer equipment he’d been operating. The scent of an accelerant hung in the air, mingling with that of burnt flesh. There was the mild buzz of flies disturbed at their sudden appearance. Rhona could see that the fire had consumed his left arm and hand, and the left side of his head. His left leg and lower body weren’t visible from where they stood. The equipment nearest that side appeared to be the most damaged.

At first glance, you could have imagined that an electrical fault had caused the fire, but the presence of an accelerant suggested otherwise.

‘Someone trying to cover their tracks?’ Chrissy said.

‘That’s what we thought. He hasn’t been disturbed. This is exactly how we found him,’ Erling told Rhona. ‘We’ll head for the second locus now.’

They continued down the staircase. The vast open space they were about to enter was obviously the gaming area. From where they stood on the stairs, they could see what looked like a maze, built of fake walls, the central portion opening out to become an arena.

‘It’s like the Night of the Undead at the Arches,’ Chrissy said.

Rhona gave Erling a quick explanation. ‘It’s an underground space beneath Central Station in Glasgow.’

‘Where they held an overnight combat game killing zombies,’ Chrissy finished for her. ‘It was ace.’

‘So you’ll be able to find your way through this maze?’ Erling joked.

‘Of course. Since it looks as though you’ve already laid down the treads.’

As they stepped via the metal treads towards the entrance, they were suddenly blinded by light, while above, a virtual audience began to scream down encouragement at them from an animated balcony.

‘Sorry,’ Erling tried to shout above the noise. ‘I should have warned you. This happens intermittently and we’re not sure how it’s controlled. We didn’t want to remove any of the equipment from the computer room until you’d had the opportunity to process the body. It’ll cut out again shortly,’ he promised.