Laura screwed her eyes shut and waited. Would it hurt, sting like a thousand paper cuts? Or would it be painless, the life ebbing out of her in numbed torrents?

"You rely on Listening too much, you know that?" said Christmas. "You've forgotten how to trust people. Your humanity is slipping away. Use it or lose it. So, trust me on this. I could kill you, but I won't."

He released his grip on her arm and stepped back. Laura turned, pushing herself into the wall. Christmas flipped the knife over, catching it by the blade. He held it between thumb and finger at the tip and offered it to her.

"Take it," he said, as Laura stared at the handle suspiciously. "Go on, as a symbol of my trust in you. Besides," he said, as Laura gingerly took the knife handle, "I can take it off you any time I want." He smiled, a gentle smile that was almost apologetic.

"What do you want?" asked Laura quietly, the handle of the knife strangely comforting in her hand.

"I need your help."

Laura gave a sharp, humourless snort.

"I mean, I need a Listener," he continued. "Look, shall we sit down?"

He turned and picked up the fallen chair. Laura thought how vulnerable he seemed at that moment, and wondered how easy it would be to plunge the knife into his back. She knew it would be impossible for her to kill, even if the opportunity was there. Ted had been impressed with this man's combat skills, and he'd immobilised her with a casual ease. He probably wasn't vulnerable at all. Maybe it was a test, or an attempt to show how trusting he was, but Laura was willing to bet that any attempt to attack him would result at best in another humiliation for her.

Christmas straightened, walked around the table and sat down, raising his eyebrows in a silent invitation. Cautiously, Laura sat in the chair he had just righted. She placed the knife on the table in front of her, but rested her hand on the handle.

"Why do you need a Listener? We're all evil and part of the great conspiracy to bring down Andrew Christmas, aren't we?"

"It's not paranoia when they really are out to get you, you know," he said, and this time there seemed to be genuine humour behind the brief smile. "Look, it's true what I told you earlier, whether you believe it or not. I'm the living proof of that. Well, partially. The problem is, I'm all the proof I've got. Get rid of me, and my testimony is useless. Sure, I can write it down, but without a Listener to certify it, no court or hearing is going to give it any weight."

"You want me to certify your statement? Are you stupid? What makes you think I would put my career at risk by lying for you?"

He shook his head. "That's not what I'm asking. I was just making the point that, because no one can Listen to me, my testimony is pretty worthless. What I need is something else that can't be refuted. Something that doesn't rely on a Guild-certified Listener."

"Like what?"

Laura tensed as Christmas slipped his hand into a pocket. He pulled out a slim matt black cylinder, the size of his thumb.

"What's that?" she asked.

"A silver bullet. There's very few of them around, and it's a criminal offence to even posses one. The main software companies got together at the government's request. Well, not so much a request, really. Anyway, it's a lock breaker. Hook it up to a machine and it's full of all sorts of goodies to help crack whatever security the server has in place. Very useful for keeping tabs on terrorist cells, organised crime, opposition politicians, kindergarten teachers. You know, all the undesirables in society."

Laura shrugged. "And? I'm not a geekwench. Why would you want a Listener to help you with that?"

"The downside of this is, I need access to the server. The Guild has records, proof that what I'm saying is true. They must have. But I need to get into their network to find it. I was going to slip into their offices and plant it, but that's out of the question now."

"What? You really must be crazy or stupid to think you could break into the Guild head offices. It's a multi-national organisation. You think they don't have alarms? Security?"

"You'd be surprised what skills the government has taught me in defence of this country, but no, I wasn't going to wear my cat burglar costume and cut a hole in a glass window. There are far better ways to get into a building. Do you realise how many times people will let you walk into a high security building if you wear overalls and carry a water barrel? But now I know they have my picture, plus whatever they got from Mr Parkinson, I simply can't just waltz into a building full of Listeners. It would be immediately obvious who I was."

Laura shook her head. "Ted wouldn't have told them anything. You didn't know him. He was an unprincipled bugger, but as stubborn as a mule when he wanted to be. He wouldn't tell them anything."

Christmas gave Laura a patronising look that raised her hackles. "Don't be naive, Laura. You think they asked his consent before Listening? I'm sure Ted was everything you say he was, but he wouldn't have a choice."

"No," said Laura firmly, "the Guild is opposed to non-consensual Listening. It's something a Listener just wouldn't do."

"The police do. I know for sure the security forces do. You think the Guild wouldn't? Oh, I don't mean the majority of Listeners," he added, forestalling the protest that rose to Laura's lips. "I mean the organisation. If they had a Listener that wasn't squeamish, someone with whom the Guild conditioning hadn't taken, you think they'd hesitate for a second to use her if they could? I'm sorry, but they know everything he did. Including your involvement."

Laura shrugged. "So? They know about my involvement anyway. It was me that called them, remember? But how did they know about Ted? Your story doesn't make sense. There was nothing to connect him to you. How would they know?"

"They knew about you," said Christmas. "Presumably they interviewed you. Even if you didn't give them his national ID number, they could have tracked him down."

"Uh uh." Said Laura, shaking her head. "I left him out of the story. If it was the Guild that killed him, and I don't believe for a moment it was, then there's only one person I can think of who could have told them. You. And as you are avoiding the Guild, I guess that makes you his killer." Laura felt a strange mixture of triumph and terror as she thought through the evidence.

"You didn't tell them about Parkinson?" said Christmas. Laura shook her head. Christmas leant back and stared pensively at Laura, his fingers drumming a complicated rhythm on the tabletop. Eventually Laura's impatience got the better of her.

"What?" she said.

"The people you talked to, the ones from the Guild. Were they local? Did you know them?"

"Yes. Well, sort of. They've been around for the last few days. Why?"

"Then they know you were hiding his involvement. They Listened to you. They now know you were lying."

"No!" Laura slammed her hand onto the tabletop and enjoyed a glimmer of satisfaction under her anger that Christmas gave a start. "Don't you do that. Don't you dare suggest I got him killed. You're the one to blame for this, not me."

"I'm not blaming you at all. You're right, I brought this down on you, but that's not what's important right now."

"Ted's dead! You think that's not important?"

"Not as important as the fact you're still alive. They know you've met me. They knew Ted met me too, so they killed him."

"Oh, right. So there's this Guild death squad killing off everyone who's ever met you? So why am I not dead?"

Christmas shrugged. "Because they Listened to you and thought you were no threat? You never believed me at the restaurant, did you. Or maybe they're squeamish about killing their own. I don't know, but it means you're not safe. Blame me if it makes you feel better, but right now, you really don't want to make it easy for the Guild to find you."

"No, you're full of shit. A Listener can tell when she's being Listened to. I'd have known."

"Are you sure?" asked Christmas. "Can you be absolutely certain you'd know if a skilled Listener was Listening to you?"

Laura thought back to her Guild training days. They'd performed exercises to heighten their awareness, the instructor making clumsy attempts to Listen, making it obvious, then gradually toning it down. In the end Laura could pick up subtle signals, but sometimes it needed quite a degree of concentration.

"Yes," she said, but even to her own ears it lacked conviction.

"Yeah, right. Okay, we have to leave. Grab what you need, enough for a couple of days. Move."

Laura tightened her grip on the knife handle.

"What makes you think I'd agree to leaving my house with a psycho?" she asked.

Christmas smiled again. "Oh, sorry. Did it sound as though I was asking for your agreement?"