"The cafe has a car park, you know," said Laura, as they made their way along the footpath.

"True enough, but the truck is a little less than honest, remember? I'd rather it wasn't outside the building we were hiding in if it gets discovered. And pull your cap further down."

"I heart truckers. That's your idea of a joke?"

Christmas grinned. "You could have had the cap that featured a near-naked girl on the front, but I didn't think that was your style. Seriously, I don't know if they'll have remotely monitored CCTV. Keep it pulled low at least until we know if the cafe has cameras."

Christmas glanced around the car park, then led Laura to the cafe. It was a modern glass and steel prefabricated affair set back from the road. Posters of unfeasibly attractive cakes and coffees were blutacked to the windows. Most of the tables visible were unoccupied. They entered. A middle-aged woman looked up from the screen at the counter and smiled.

"Howdy. What can I get you folks?"

"Two coffees, please," said Christmas.

"No, a tea for me," said Laura. "An Earl Grey if you have one."

"Don't you ever drink coffee? Go on, do something conventional for once," said Christmas.

"The lady knows what the lady wants," said the woman behind the counter. "Of course we have Earl Grey, sweetie. Anything to eat? I got some banana muffins still warm from the oven."

Christmas turned to Laura and grinned. "Does the lady want muffins?"

"Does the gentleman want a kick in the shins?" replied Laura, smiling sweetly.

"That'll be just the coffee and the tea. Oh, and an hour on-line too, please."

"Sure. You just swipe your card on the terminal at the table and it'll debit it at the end of the session."

"Ah, is there any way we can pay cash?"

The waitress frowned. "Cash? Why?"

Christmas leant closer and dropped his voice.

"Well, I really would appreciate this not appearing on my statement, you know what I mean?" He reached out and took Laura's hand. "We're not really supposed to be here."

She looked from Christmas to Laura, dropping her eyes to take in the hand-holding, and she smiled.

"Oh, I see. Well, sorry, that's just the way it's set up. The terminal won't start up without a credit card."

"How much would an hour's session cost?"

"Twenty."

Christmas reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. He peeled a fifty from inside.

"That's a shame, because an hour on the terminal and the drinks would have been worth fifty to me, easily."

Christmas and the woman locked eyes. A moment later she took the fifty from Christmas. "Where'd you want to sit?" she said.

"There would be good," said Christmas, indicating a table towards the back of the cafe.

She walked briskly to the table, produced a purse from her pinafore and swiped the card reader with her own card.

"An hour," she said.

"At the most," said Christmas. "You're very kind. Thank you."

After she left, Laura shook her head in disbelief.

"Amazing. Yesterday you were having affairs with waitresses, now you're having them believe I'm having an affair with you."

"Waitress. It was only one waitress, and to be fair, I only promised an affair. I never actually had one. And I never actually said we were an item either."

"How did you know she would go for it? I mean, she could have been a God-fearing puritan."

"She doesn't own the place. If she did, she wouldn't be wearing such an awful uniform. Which means she's staff, and the food industry is low paid. She smirked when I held your hand, rather than looking judgemental. She'd have done it for less. See, that's what us Normals have to do, when we can't just jump in and read someone's mind."

"I told you, we don't just - ," She stopped as Christmas grinned at her. "Oh, very funny. Does making snide remarks come as part of spy-school training?"

"Yes, but I skipped that class. They said I already had a God-given talent in that area. Okay, to work." He brought up the site of a cheap hotel chain. "Where are we going to have our next affair? No? Okay, let's bring up a map of the Guild, then." He went to a mapping site, called up the Guild's address and zoomed out the satellite photo to show the whole campus. Then he flicked back to the hotel site.

He looked up and smiled as the waitress brought over a tray.

"Your Earl Grey is still brewing, sweetie," she said, placing the cups and teapot onto the table. Christmas had been right, Laura thought to herself. As the waitress glanced at the hotel screen her smile had more than a touch of smirk about it.

When she'd gone Christmas flicked back to the aerial shot of the Guild campus.

"You weren't lying by much when you said it was big. Okay, so give me the guided tour, what's what here?"

Laura peered at the screen.

"This area is the school," she said. "You can just make out the fence, see? Definitely not a stroll-in area. I say school, but it's much more than that. It's almost a town within a town. This is the main school itself, but there's a library here, these buildings are dorms. This area I think is the retreat. It has its own dorms and living areas, but I've never been there. That's where they'll put me if I stroll in off the street. But as you can see, it's all in the centre of the campus. There's a security fence all around,"

"That must be half the campus."

"Pretty much. These buildings are residential areas, mainly for staff. This tower here, that's the main admin building. That's where I'd register. As for the rest, I don't really know."

"Why the security fence?"

"Some people are hostile. Others just curious. Either way, when you have kids in training, or Listeners burnt-out or world weary, you don't want the world and its dog gawping at you."

"In the residential are, do you have additional security? Cameras, swipe cards, that sort of thing?"

"Do you know, as a young girl, that was my over-riding concern, to do a security sweep of my home."

"I'll take that as a don't know."

"I was never that aware of any. The retreat might be gated. I shouldn't think they'll want awe-struck teenagers running amuck in there. Why? Is it important?"

Christmas shrugged. "I don't know. You can never have enough intel. What about the server room? Where's that?"

"Beats me, pal. The main admin building, maybe?"

"Maybe. Or the library. Or one of the anonymous buildings. Or Mars, come to that. But, yeah, maybe the main admin building. So outside the prison camp - excuse me - outside the school, is there any other security?"

"It wasn't a prison. I told you, the fence was to keep people out, not in. But no, outside the school the area is pretty open. You see security cars around, but you also get, oh, utility workmen, sandwich trucks, that sort of thing driving in. You just have security as you go into the buildings."

Christmas zoomed out further. The Guild campus was in a mainly wooded area. To the west lay a lake.

"These buildings here. Are they Guild?"

"A couple, maybe, but mostly no. They're mainly just restaurants, stores, residential areas, mostly nothing to do with the Guild. It's a nice place, after all, and there's spin-off jobs the Guild generates."

Christmas stared at the screen, taking occasional sips of his coffee. Laura waited, looking at him through the fragrant steam of her tea. It was unsettling, being able to see Christmas but unable to sense his mind. Not that she would ever Listen, but she had never really been conscious of the background hum of people before. Their presence was like the air conditioning. You never really noticed the noise until it wasn't there.

"Well?" she said at last, as she reached the bottom of her cup.

"Well what?"

"Well, what's the great master plan, Mister Bond."

Christmas smiled at the joke.

"Okay, here's the situation. You have to get on the campus without getting yourself arrested. Then you have to get through security gates with a pass that won't authorise you without alerting security. You need to get into the server room, the location of which we have no idea. Finally you have to escape undetected. Well, actually, for the plan to work, that last step is optional, but I'm trying to be nice. All of this, and we have no intel about the place, and no time to gather it. You know what we need?"

"A miracle?"

"An inside man."

Laura shook her head as if to clear it. "Excuse me? You want to stroll up to a Guild Listener and ask her to betray the Guild?"

"Well, it worked once. But no, not a Listener. I was thinking more of a Guild employee."

"What makes you think you can get an employee to put his job at risk? I mean, why should he?"

"Everyone has a price, Laura."

"Do you have that much money?"

"Oh, the price is hardly ever money. You just need to find the right person, and find out what he wants more than money."

"How do we do that?"

Christmas interlocked his fingers and cracked his knuckles. "Watch and learn, my young apprentice." He poised with his fingers over the keyboard for a moment, then started typing.