‘My turn,’ she said.

Jamie drove to work. The first day back after his enforced holiday, he had been terrified. Firstly, he was afraid that they would have decided to sack him after all and, secondly, if they didn’t do that, he was afraid that his colleagues would hate him. He had almost been sick in the lift up to his floor. But the moment he had stepped out of the lift he had seen Mike, who had come straight over to talk to him.

‘Welcome back,’ he said.

‘Thanks. Has my desk been cleared while I was away?’

‘Eh? No, of course not. You don’t think they’d sack you over that, do you?’

‘I was worried they might.’

Chris rolled his eyes. ‘Listen, the management have got more important things to worry about than you and your virus. Have you heard?’

‘What?’

‘The takeover’s definitely going ahead.’

They walked over to their desks and sat down. All around them, people were chatting, gossiping, an electric current of nervous excitement buzzing around the office. Nobody paid any heed to Jamie. He relaxed, felt the knot in his shoulders untwist itself.

‘Has it been officially confirmed?’

‘Not exactly. We had a memo to say that the rumours were correct, that the company was on the verge of accepting an offer from another company, but that we shouldn’t panic, blah blah blah.’

‘Panic about what?’

Mike gave him a funny look. ‘What do you reckon? Our jobs. That’s been the number one topic of conversation this last fortnight. Will there be redundancies? Who’s for the chop? Lots of worried faces around – especially among the management. The word is that we plebs are pretty safe, but the middle managers are going to be – what’s the word? – culled.’

‘Ouch.’

‘Yeah. Ouch, indeed.’

‘And do we know who’s taking over?’

Mike shook his head. ‘Not officially. But I reckon it’s going to be Software Logistics.’

‘That Croydon firm? Really?’

‘I’d put money on it.’

Jamie switched his terminal on. To be honest, he didn’t care who his boss was, as long as they paid his wages and didn’t interfere too much or try to change things for the sake of it. And he was so relieved that he wasn’t a pariah among his colleagues. Now he just wanted to get down to work. Lose himself in it for a while.

At lunchtime, Mike said, ‘So how are things at home? Have you had any more grief from those neighbours of yours?’

Jamie paused. ‘Well, it’s strange. We haven’t. I saw Chris – that’s the bloke downstairs – and he said hello to me. He was quite civil, actually. I was a bit freaked out.’

‘I bet.’

‘But since then, we’ve heard nothing from them. No letters, no hoaxes, no banging on the ceiling. Nothing weird has happened at all.’