‘Dad … you know how you changed your telephone number? I wonder if I should change my password at school …’ And out it comes, how Mr Tanner had sent an email with an attachment, asking Leandro to look at his report, but when Leandro clicked on the attachment it wasn’t what he expected. ‘I’ve been getting messages ever since.’

‘What sort of messages?’

‘Weird stuff, telling me my device has been hacked, they can see everything on my screen …’

‘It must be a malware,’ Dyer tries to reassure him. A similar email had arrived on his laptop from someone claiming to have infected Dyer’s router with a program called Spyware, but he’d ignored it.

‘No, no, Dad, you don’t get it. They know the last game I played on Xbox, what I have on my wall, they even … Dad, has someone been using my room?’

Dyer had not told him about Marvar staying the night. At the time, Leandro hadn’t seemed to notice, all his focus trained on Trafalgar.

‘Why do you ask?’

‘It’s crazy. They want to get hold of this person. They’ll leave me alone if I tell them how. I literally have no idea what they’re talking about.’

Ahead of them, the bus juddered off.

‘It’s just some nerd,’ said Dyer, putting the car into gear. ‘Some sick nerd.’ Yet it was he who felt sick. ‘I’ll ring Mr Tanner when we get home,’ he promised. ‘We’ll ask him to change your password.’

As Dyer turned left into Jamaica Road, Vasily sprang into view, spinning a yellow football on his finger while he waited for the security gate to open.

They both spotted him at once. Leandro’s instinct was to slide down in his seat, so that when Vasily looked over he saw only Dyer – who was thinking: Where’s your mother?

‘Hey, I thought you guys were getting on better,’ said Dyer, after they had driven past.

‘We are,’ from his reclining position.

‘Leandro—’

‘Scrape out.’

‘Scrape?’

Leandro laughed at Dyer’s expression. ‘You don’t understand, do you?’ sitting up. ‘Everything’s fine, Dad.’

Dyer had hoped the bullying incident was behind them. The airing of it had brought the matter to a head and popped it, yet the possibility of re-infection was always there. But maybe that defined parenthood. Dyer couldn’t protect his son from everything, and at this moment Vasily ranked low on the list of imminent threats.

About Vasily’s mother, Dyer felt a haphazard contrition.

His remorse was merely lust’s dessert, his aunt would have joined Updark in reminding him. He was able to recognise that now. Whatever had fogged up his view of Katya Petroshenko was gone.