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Chapter 16

They drove in silence for a while, creeping through traffic lights and across zebra crossings towards London’s western edge. These outer reaches of the city seemed so sad and run-down, the bright sunshine exposing the cracks and the filth, the boarded-up shops, black bin liners spilling their guts on every kerb. Kate couldn’t help but see it as a kind of virus that had spread through the city, so that every borough looked the same: the same shops on every high street, identical gangs of teenagers in identical clothes. Actually, there was something hopeful about the kids, the way they thrived in the most barren places, their adaptability, making their own fun and enjoying life though it appeared the world hated them. Again, like viruses. And soon these parts of London would be stricken by another disease: gentrification would come and prices would soar, and that branch of Tennessee Fried Chicken would become a nice little deli, and the kids would be driven somewhere else, further marginalised but always there.

Leaving London, Kate felt like an animal that had been chased from its hole. Exposed and endangered. She turned her face from the window, looked around to make sure Jack was alright. He was fine, leaning back like a VIP in a limo, gazing imperiously at the strange streets. What was he thinking? Did he miss his dad, his friends? Or was he too excited by all this newness, this adventure? Probably a little of both. When he was older he would probably look back and wonder about this strange holiday his mum took him on as a kid.

They took the M4 for a short distance, driving past signposts that pointed to THE WEST. The words gave Kate goosebumps and she rubbed her forearms. Going west. Into the past. To a place where she was going to have to confront her memories, prise open the lid of Pandora’s box. She felt fluttery panic, bird’s wings in her stomach and chest. Needing distraction, she turned on the radio.

‘Animal rights groups are denying responsibility for last night’s shocking murder of a scientist in Oxford . . .’

Great. She switched it off. She didn’t want to think about scientists being murdered – or anything to do with science or work. She missed her work, the quiet excitement of the lab, the research into the Watoto Virus that had become her obsession and her cause. She specialised in research into viruses that mainly affected Africa. There had been the research into West Nile, plus Ebola and Marburg. But her real passion was in finding a vaccine for Watoto, as if the virus had become a personal enemy, her nemesis. She dreamt of making that breakthrough and becoming, in conquering the disease, a modern day Edward Jenner, famed for developing the smallpox inoculation, or Louis Pasteur, who had developed the vaccine for rabies.

She missed the colleagues she’d left behind too. What would they think of her? No doubt, they would find what she’d done irrational and out of character. On top of that, they’d think she’d betrayed them, left them at a crucial time. Perhaps one day she’d be able to explain her reasons to them.

As they turned onto the infamous M25, they hit traffic. Paul stuck his head out of the window, trying to see what was causing the hold-up. He sighed. ‘Looks like an accident.’

‘I’m sorry.’

‘Why do you say that?’

‘I’ve just realised that I’m dragging you away from your normal life. Your job.’

He waved her concerns away. ‘Don’t worry about it. I was due some leave and, anyway, we’d just finished working on a big case. You met me at a good time.’

Eager for something to take her mind off everything else, Kate asked, ‘What was the case about? Can you tell me?’

‘Phishing.’

‘Where criminals send emails pretending to be your bank or some other big site so you’ll give them your credit card or bank details?’

‘That’s right.’

From the backseat, Jack said, ‘I’d like to go fishing and catch a fish.’

Paul said, ‘Maybe I’ll take you one day.’

‘Cool.’

Kate frowned. ‘You shouldn’t make promises to kids that you don’t mean to keep.’

‘Who says I don’t mean to keep it?’

He didn’t meet her eye as he said it, but flicked a look at her in the pause that followed, and Kate suddenly became very aware of the heat inside the car. She didn’t want this; didn’t need it. ‘How do you turn up the air-con in this car?’

Paul turned a dial on the dashboard. This was English summer all right: capricious, moody. Overcast and cool, then swinging into blazing cruelty. That made her think of Vernon, and so she prompted Paul to tell her about the phishing case to help take her mind off her husband.

‘It was a big deal. The trail led back to a crime syndicate in Russia. As it so often does. Russia, Nigeria, South Korea. Although it can be anywhere really. The most frustrating thing about computer crime is that it moves so easily across borders. The United States passed an Anti-Phishing Act last year but then they can’t prosecute half of the criminals because they’re in Asia or somewhere else. We work with police forces and agencies all over the world, but the only way we’re ever going to win the battle is if computer users stop being so stupid and falling for these scams.’

‘They keep you in work though,’ smiled Kate.

‘True. Although some of the cases we deal with make me wish the internet had never been invented.’

‘Like what?’

‘I can’t really talk about it with Jack in the car. It involves kids.’

‘Oh.’

‘Yeah. The kind of stuff that stays with you, makes you look at the world differently. Makes you realise that there are sicknesses in society that we’re a long, long way from curing.’

Another kind of virus, Kate thought, passed down through the generations. She instinctively turned to check Jack was still okay. He grinned at her, and the traffic started moving.

‘So how did you get into the computer security business anyway?’ Kate asked.

Paul didn’t answer right away, and she thought it might be because he was concentrating on the road. Now the traffic was finally moving Kate could sense the irritation in all the metal boxes around them dissipate a little. A boxer dog watched them solemnly through the rear window of the car in front. They gradually increased their speed as the traffic spread out.

‘I suppose you could say I got into it because it was already my area of expertise. And it was either cross over and go legit, or, well, go to jail.’

Kate waited for him to continue. He swung the steering wheel to the left and overtook the car with the boxer dog. He chewed his lower lip. After a minute, he said over his shoulder, ‘You alright back there, Jack?’

‘I just saw a man eat a booger.’

‘Nice.’

They continued to chat aimlessly, Kate unwilling to press Paul on what he had inferred about the threat of prison. She was still waiting for him to tell her anything further about his past an hour and a half later, when they reached Salisbury. She filed it in her head under ‘cause for concern’, but didn’t push it. After all, they would have plenty of time to find out more about each other. There was no rush.