She half stumbled, tried to turn it into leaning on the bed and failed. ‘Tell me.’

‘I slept like a baby.’ His face was beatific and calm, his eyes blank. ‘That night I dreamt about what I’d do to him, what anyone would do to him and when I woke up, that weight had been lifted from my mind. All the darkness, all the horror had gone. The Drop had saved me, Izzy. It was like a benediction.’

She was starting to feel stronger now, calmer. ‘How did it end up online then?’

Nash moved towards her, the iron bar dragging across the ground. He laughed and the sound felt hollow and brittle. ‘Pure blind stupidity. My Drop was set up to put everything I downloaded into a share file. It was on eight sites by the time I got home that night, a hundred the next day. I called it ‘nightmare’, I never hid it as someone’s birthday party or first kiss or any of the other things we’ve found it as Izzy, you have to believe me.’

She moved slowly away, taking care to keep her distance. ‘Martin why didn’t you say something?’

‘YOU THINK I EXPECTED THIS TO HAPPEN! I FELT SICK, IZZY, PHYSICALLY SICK WHEN THE FIRST ONE HAPPENED! IT WAS LIKE I’D KILLED THEM!’

‘What about the other five!? What about the killers, their families? Why didn’t you come in Martin? We could have helped.’

‘Because I was scared. Because I thought I’d lose my job.’ He paused. ‘And because, when it comes down to it, no one’s truly innocent.’

She gestured around them, to the unconscious and screaming doctors, to the door, now bulging under the weight of four officers. She knew they wouldn’t get through in time. ‘How safe do you think it is now?’

He raised the crowbar. ‘I’m sorry Izzy.’

‘So am I.’

She nodded and focussed all her will into the Sun Drop. She grabbed hold of the victim’s writhing anger and brought it forward. She heard herself roar, saw Martin Nash leap forward and then-

Sunlight falling through the rain like jewels. A perfect, synchronised dance of water plummeting around her and shrouding the ground, the buildings and the people. A fall of light in which people were defined by the shadows they cast, dancing endlessly around one another until-

She opened her eyes. She was lying face down on the floor and someone was lying on top of her. Pushing the body to one side, she back pedalled across the floor, kicking it away as she did so. Lucas Pugh appeared in front of her and she put her hands up.

‘Get away from me! Lucas get away!’

The coroner was bleeding from his nose and an ugly cut on his forehead but otherwise looked unharmed. He put his hands out, palms up. ‘Izzy, it’s alright, he’s down. He’s down, you’re okay.’

She looked at him, and at the crumpled form of Martin Nash. He read the question and answered it for her. ‘No, you didn’t. You held him off long enough for the uniforms to get the door down. I was just coming round when you jumped him, I saw it all.’

She looked at him, then back at Nash, then balled her hands into her face and began to cry. Deep, racking sobs that echoed through the room and out into the world.

.