‘I can. And I’m going to have to. For Christ’s sake, Jamie, I can’t be involved now. He’s my boss. I mean – yeah, the bloke sounds like a psycho – but I can’t afford to lose my job. I can’t risk it.’

‘But you have to.’

‘No I don’t.’

‘Please.’

‘Jamie, I’m sorry, alright? But it’s out of the question.’

He made to leave the room but Jamie stepped in front of him. Mike tried to dodge round him but Jamie grabbed his sleeve.

‘Jamie, leave it. I cannot get involved. That is it. My final answer.’

‘Mike, please.’

‘If you don’t take your hands off me I’m going to have to hit you.’

Jamie let go. ‘Let me contact them myself.’

‘What?’

‘Your friends. Give me their number and I’ll contact them myself. They don’t have to know it’s got anything to do with you. I’ll tell them I heard about them through someone else. I’ll make something up. You hadn’t already given them my name, or Chris’s or Lucy’s, so just give me the number and I’ll sort it all out. Nobody will even know you were involved.’

Mike exhaled through his nose.

‘Please.’

‘Oh, for fuck’s sake. OK. But if you mention my name to them you’ll be their next victim.’

‘Alright. I promise I won’t mention you.’

Mike pulled a scrap of paper and a pen out of his trouser pocket. He scribbled a number down. ‘The name to ask for is Charlie. Alright?’

‘Right.’

Mike left the room, having instructed Jamie to wait another ten seconds before leaving the gents. Jamie looked at the number in his hand. He put it safely in his wallet, then pushed open the door and looked left and right. There was no sign of Chris. As he walked towards the lift he took a last look around. He knew he would never be coming back to this place again. How could he, with Chris working here – as his boss, no less? He now understood why Chris had sent the virus, in Jamie’s name, to his workplace: so he would have an excuse to sack him after he became the manager. God, he was clever. But fuck him. Jamie wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.

He had never realised Chris was so high up at Scion. He thought he was just a lowly wage-slave like himself. But he was obviously powerful enough to engineer the takeover of a smaller company and move himself in as manager. Jamie felt quite sick with the shock of it: the lengths the man would go to to destroy him.

What had he ever done to him?