Hissop said: ‘He has no affiliation with any college. He doesn’t have students. He’s basically just a junior researcher, part of a group of eight PHD students with a professor in charge.’

‘What does his professor say?’ asked Dyer.

Hissop coughed. ‘Marvar wasn’t terribly well connected to the head of the group.’

‘Professor Bruce Whitton,’ Updark expanded acidly, stretching out his leg, ‘is a great believer in the doctrine of economy of effort. He is more interested in another branch of plasma research, and is far too busy raising money for that, plus going to All Souls for dinner. He professes incomprehension at the idea of Marvar’s so-called breakthrough. Roly?’ He picked up his mug, waiting for Hissop to locate the note.

Hissop read out: ‘“Plodding, erratic, paddling his own canoe up a dead-end tributary of plasma focus.” Whitton finds it beyond inconceivable that this man should have stumbled on the answer to nuclear fusion. “What did he use as fuel? He didn’t have access to tritium.” Also, Whitton is in a rush to remind us that a lot of the claims in the past have turned out to be bogus. They appear viable at first, but scratch – and the evidence doesn’t exist. There was that German scientist in Argentina in the 1950s. All that palaver about cold fusion in the 1980s. Then the false dawns with ZETA and TFTR and JET. One after another, each of these so-called discoveries has been dissed.’

‘Then why not listen to Whitton?’ said Dyer, marvelling at how easy it had been to lead them into full disclosure.

‘As a matter of fact, Whitton’s not our main source on this,’ said Hissop, flushing.

‘The thing that’s changed,’ said Updark, as if Dyer’s question had been answered, ‘is that a single entrepreneur sitting in a room now has the tools and the lack of bureaucratic encumbrance to outdevelop and outsmart governments. You don’t need big labs. All you need is a very small team on a very small budget.’

‘What about others in the group?’ persisted Dyer. ‘Wouldn’t they have an idea?’

‘Roly, you’ve spoken to them,’ said Updark. ‘They had little or no contact with him, am I correct?’

‘He seems not to have collaborated with anyone else on the team,’ Hissop confirmed. ‘Whitton ran a pretty open lab. Not much security. Marvar was free to come and go.’

‘What we are saying,’ said Updark, ‘is that he’s not a high-value asset. He doesn’t count, he doesn’t move the needle, he’s small fry. But then again – and it doesn’t really sound logical – if anyone is going to break through the fusion barrier, it’s likely to be someone who has been ignored. Discoverers are dull. Look at Fritz Zwicky.’

‘Who’s Fritz Zwicky?’ asked Dyer.