‘And that’s Hermes? The new password?’ She snorts, hair flying as she shakes her head.

‘Right,’ I say, horror spreading like ice water through my body. ‘It’s always something to do with…’ I trail off. She knows where it comes from. We all do. By now we all know everything. I’m suddenly so angry I think I’ve gone blind.

‘I know it’s a lot to take in,’ Dominic chimes in, words stroking at the edges of my white-hot fury. ‘But this proves it; it proves it all. Our investigation is iron-clad. I’ve got two police sources handing me their nuclear new evidence against Minchin. A top-level source saying he was protected because of active intelligence ops – even now, they say it would compromise national security. We all know how worried everyone still is about Russian nukes. And here we have a mole, right in front of us, that corroborates the whole, sick, sorry business.’

There’s a crash as the office door flies open, sending the plant next to it, so tall it should be in the ground rather than a pot, flying forward into the room. Through the haze and sunspots I can make out Jemima shrugging and pushing at Gabe behind her, trying to 265restrain her without actually touching her too much. I can feel Dominic’s sigh next to me as much as I can hear it.

‘Settle down, Gabe,’ Olivia barks from behind her desk, folding her arms and crossing her legs, tying herself into a perfect knot. ‘I asked Jemima to join us. You weren’t to know. My fault.’

Gabe’s eyebrows arch so high that they’re the only thing I can see before Jemima slams the door in his face, glaring at Dominic as she stands beside us. I gulp, a sudden draft of air filling my lungs, soaking my body, sunspots giving way to stars and twinkles in my eyes. She’s all we need, I think, seizing at more air, every cell in my body guzzling. Olivia trusts her far more than Dominic. We’re almost there, so nearly there I can taste it with every fresh, delicious breath.

‘Sorry I’m late,’ Jemima says, straightening her jacket.

‘Not to worry,’ Olivia says, tightening her arms around herself. ‘I only just realised you hadn’t been included originally.’

The air in the room thickens, shafts of light like knifepoints between us.

‘Now, Dominic,’ she continues, ‘could you fill Jemima in on this latest reporting?’

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Dominic lean forward, tapping at my phone on the desk, his movements syrupy, as if time has slowed down round us, as if just here, in this tiny glass box in the clouds, time is grinding to a halt, not to start again until it knows the way forward, the exact beat between every minute, every hour, every day ahead. Proof crackles out of the handset.