The real problem was that Liem and Travis didn’t work to the same rhythm as him and everything had to happen quickly for them. They had grown up with smartphones in their hands and then trained in the digital economy and video games, working in various countries including the United States. Franck felt the full impact of the difference in age and culture. The simplest thing would be to phone them now to get things straight and explain his point of view. But he couldn’t bring himself to. Even here at the back of this big empty room, although he was perfectly calm and undisturbed by anyone, he didn’t feel he was in the right frame of mind to make a phone call. Especially not to talk about Netflix and the library. In these surroundings he felt completely off balance. After spending a second night in that house, after only two days in these remote hills, he was so far from his bearings and usual worries that he had lost the words and presence of mind you need to talk business over the phone.

A big 4×4 pulled up opposite the café, on the other side of the road. In the back was a huge metal cage fixed to the bed of the pickup, split into several compartments. Franck could see two big dogs inside, each wearing a bright phosphorescent orange collar that glowed in the dark of their wire mesh prison. Franck suddenly saw himself in their place. That’s what Liem and Travis were intending to do to him, catch him and put him in a cage so they could take him wherever they wanted. He quickly read their emails and immediately grasped their game: this time they effectively wanted him to hand the rights to the library over to them, and, in the meantime, they were asking if they could use it as ammunition in negotiations with Netflix and Amazon, because these behemoths didn’t frighten them and they had contacts there – a friend of Liem’s looked after Europe. He had just taken up a role in the Netherlands of all places, to be in a better position to get round the rules. In exchange, Liem and Travis informed him bluntly that they would give in to his ‘whim’ as they called it. They would allow him to produce the film he had in development, by which they obviously meant the film he wanted to make for Lise to star in or possibly even to direct. It was meant to seem like a win–win situation, but was left unclear because the enticement did not appear in the amendments to the contract.