‘No,’ Jake said, and he couldn’t quite vocalise the emotions that this particular piece of knowledge stirred up inside. ‘She didn’t mention it.’ Despite the fact they’d sat on the same Tube train all the way into work. What the hell was she playing at?

‘I’m out of here,’ Jake said.

‘Ring her.’

‘She won’t talk to me,’ Jake said. ‘I know what she’s like.’ Or at least he thought he did.

‘You’ll miss the meeting,’ Pip warned.

‘I don’t think I was invited anyway,’ Jake said, shrugging on his coat. ‘And do you know something, Pip? Suddenly that doesn’t seem quite so important. I’m going to try and catch Lyssa. I want to stop her from making the biggest mistake of her life.’

And he wasn’t altogether sure he hadn’t just made an equally disastrous bloomer himself.

Chapter twenty-five

Chapter twenty-five

I open the door and Jake is standing there. He’s out of puff and red-faced. His hair’s a mess and he looks dreadful. There are dark circles round his eyes and they’re probably as a result of having sex in every room of the house with the nubile Neve. He looks washed out and exhausted. And I want to feel pleased about this, but I can’t.

‘What do you want?’

Jake pushes into the lounge. ‘Pip told me about your hare-brained plan,’ he pants.

He stops abruptly as he sees my brand spanking new kit bag and my rucksack and my rather startlingly coloured anorak. ‘Good Lord,’ he breathes.

‘I can’t stand here chatting,’ I say as pleasantly as I can manage. ‘I’m off to the airport.’

‘You can’t go,’ Jake says. There is real terror in his eyes.

‘Why?’ I say. ‘And don’t mention anything about yaks or Yetis. It’s all been done.’

It seems strange to see him standing here again. I feel uncomfortable with him and not as if I’ve spent the last four years with him. It’s as if that was my old life and this is the new, biologically improved me.

‘Have you actually thought this through?’

‘Of course I have.’

‘What are you going to do when you get there?’

‘Trek,’ I say. ‘It isn’t as demanding a trip as Neve’s.’ I can’t help sounding barbed. ‘But it will suit me.’

‘You wouldn’t even go for a walk round the duck pond in Verulamium Park without an hour’s protest.’

‘My,’ I say brightly, ‘how things change!’ I hope Jake doesn’t spot my leery bobble hat.

‘You’re not one of life’s active people.’

I make no comment, but set about doing busy things involving baggage tags and rucksacks.

‘Where will you plug in your hairdryer?’