PRIME MINISTER: More lorries? I can’t believe such a ludicrous idea was ever green-lit in the first place!
EDWARD KARCZEWSKI: No, no more lorries. That was only a temporary measure while we were developing an alternative approach to keeping our classified information secure and impossible for outside sources to locate. All I ask is that when you learn of our idea, you try to keep an open mind. If I can direct your attention to the video screen ahead.
** EDWARD KARCZEWSKI has used an electronic keypad to turn on a screen **
PRIME MINISTER: Why are there dozens of random shapes, numbers and letters speeding around the screen?
EDWARD KARCZEWSKI: It’s how we are going to find the people we need to protect our country.
Chapter 1
FLICK, LONDON
‘Oh, come on!’ Flick protested. ‘You’re living in cloud cuckoo land if you think you’re going to get that much for it.’
She shook her head as an estimated asking price of £445,000 appeared on the television screen. The sum delighted the young couple who’d renovated the formerly dilapidated bungalow. But not Flick. As a regular viewer of daytime television shows, she had become an armchair expert in anything property related.
Flick removed a cigarette from a packet lying on the coffee table and lit it with a disposable lighter. She flinched ever so slightly at the sound of the flame and the cigarette crackling to life. Then she took a long, deep drag until the smoke and heat blazed the back of her throat. The astronomical price of cigarettes meant she had promised to limit herself to a handful a day. However, it was only mid-morning and this was already her fourth.
The TV screen suddenly split into two, catching her off-guard, and an image appeared of someone outside her front door. Even with his head tilted downwards, facial recognition software recognised him as Theo, one of her brothers. She took another long drag and chose to ignore him. Twice he pressed the bell before shouting through the letter box.
‘I know you’re in. I can smell the smoke coming from under the door.’
Flick rolled her eyes. She didn’t want to be troubled by Theo or any other member of her family today. Or any day, in fact. But there was no point in pretending she wasn’t there. She wasalwaysthere. She rolled the tip of her cigarette against the side of the ashtray to preserve the rest until later and picked up a can of air freshener to spray it around the room. She unlocked three bolts and two latches before typing a code into a pad. As the door opened, the youngest of her four brothers eyed her up and down.
‘You look like shit,’ he scoffed.
‘You’ve grown a beard,’ she replied. ‘You look like Grandad.’
‘It’s the same one I had the last time you saw me.’
Flick shrugged.
‘That’s how long it’s been since you’ve got off your lazy arse and bothered to come and see us.’
‘If this is a tough-love routine, then don’t waste your breath …’
‘No, this is a friendly dose of reality.’
Daylight was creeping in through a gap between the closed curtains. It highlighted a fine, smoky mist. Theo entered the flat and drew the curtains wide open and dragged his fingers across a coffee table. They left three clear lines between a layer of dust and the woodgrain. Even without the gesture, Flick knew he was judging her on the unwashed dishes, piles of dirty clothes spread across the kitchen floor, two bulging bin bags, a box of empty wine bottles and a full ashtray. She couldn’t criticise Theo for his negative assessment.
Like many of her failings, she blamed the mess on someone else.That Man. Only afterwards, when she had seen for the first time inside his flat courtesy of photographs uploaded online, did she question how she’d have coped with such fastidious tidiness. She figured the obsession with an organised home was likely born from the chaos ofthe rest of his life. A part of her recognised she’d had a lucky escape from who he really was. The other, smaller, part still retained belief that she might have been the one to have changed him.
‘I tried calling you at the restaurant because you never answer your mobile or respond to voicemails,’ Theo continued. Flick didn’t reply. She had an inkling of what was coming next. ‘So imagine my surprise when they told me you’d employed a manager to do your job because you’d taken time off for personal reasons.A year ago.’
Flick shrugged. ‘I’m on indefinite leave. So what?’
‘What personal reasons?’
‘The clue is in the wordpersonal. People take work sabbaticals all the time.’
‘But you’ve taken a sabbatical from your whole life. You’re still pining over him, aren’t you?’
‘Who?’ she replied but they were both aware of who he meant.
‘You know this can’t continue, Felicity. Just because it didn’t work out doesn’t mean it won’t work out with somebody else.’
‘He was my Match,’ Flick replied.
