Andrew Christmas spun the dazed Allen around by his shoulder and locked an arm around his neck. Laura stared open-mouthed for a moment, then launched herself forward, slapping at Christmas' back and shoulder.

"Let him go!" she screamed. "What are you doing? Let him go. You're killing him."

Allen's struggles became weaker, and finally stopped.

"Jesus, you psycho. Let him go!" She clenched her fist and tried to put more power into her blows. Christmas grunted and turned his back. Finally he released his hold and let the man down carefully onto the ground.

"Relax. You can stop it now. He's out."

Laura aimed a punch at his face, but Christmas parried it easily, then spun her round, pinning her arms to her side.

"I said calm down. He's fine. I've just put him to sleep, that's all."

He relaxed his hold, and Laura angrily shrugged herself free.

"What are you doing? This was never part of the plan."

"Well, yes, it was always part of the plan. I just didn't let you know about it, that's all."

"We can't go around killing people. That'll just make you what they say you are."

"He's not dead. He's unconscious, and I did it as gently as I could. Would you have preferred I beat him unconscious?" Christmas turned and started to rifle through the man's pockets. "Actually, it might work out rather better than I thought. The last words he heard were you fighting for his honour."

"What are you doing?"

"We need his pass."

"I thought you were going to pick his pocket."

Christmas turned his head to look up at her. He gave her a look as if to say that was the most naive thing he'd heard, then he returned to his search. "No, he'd miss it. We don't want it cancelled. Hello, what's this?" He straightened and held up a ring between his finger and thumb. "Wow, you must have made an impression. He was carrying a wedding ring, just for you." He tossed it towards her and she caught it instinctively. "Be a darling and keep an eye out for local heroes, will you?"

Laura looked around. Christmas had laid Allen out between two cars, hidden from most angles. No-one could see them. She aimed a kick at Allen's leg.

"Whoa. What that was for?"

"He was married. What sort of girl did he think I am?"

Christmas grinned and resumed his search. A moment later he pulled a wallet free. He opened it up and pulled out a pass card.

"Okay. Magnetic swipe with biometrics. Could be worse. That's doable." He took a slender card reader from his pocket and swiped the card. He carefully replaced it in Allen's wallet, bent down and checked Allen's pulse, then took a strip of the tape he'd used to start the cars and wrapped it around Allen's index finger.

"Okay, when he comes round, dump him. I'm parked up about four hundred metres towards town. Come find me."

He pulled a slim wad of folding money from the wallet, then tossed the wallet to one side.

"Not much. He obviously thought you were going to be a cheap date. Oh, don't judge me. I'm just trying to make it look like a mugging. I grabbed his wallet, took his money and ran off, okay? Just like this."

Before Laura could say anything else he turned and sprinted off through the parked cars. Laura knelt down beside the prone Allen. Some colour was returning to his cheeks. What did you do to revive an unconscious patient? She recalled something about the recovery position. She settled for poking him awkwardly in the shoulder.

"Allen?"

He answered with an undecipherable mumble.

"Allen?" She shook his shoulder.

"Wha'?"

"Allen, Allen, are you okay?"

He opened his eyes and focussed with difficulty.

"Yeah," he said, in the face of all the evidence. He smacked his lips and screwed up his face. Then he winced and brought his hand to his nose. "What happened?"

"You were mugged. Don't you remember."

"Yeah. Yeah, I remember now. Hit me. Bastard. Wait." He slapped his pockets.

"He took your money. Left everything else though." She nodded towards the discarded wallet. Allen rolled over and pulled himself to his knees. He picked up his wallet and flicked through it.

"He didn't take any cards?"

"Well, you'd put a stop on them, right? I guess the money was the easiest."

"Yeah, I guess. Wait, wait. What about you?"

"No, I just screamed at him and he ran off. I'm fine. Thanks for asking." Eventually.

He nodded, reached out to his car for support and pulled himself upright.

"Jesus. Mugged. Never been mugged before. Out here, in broad daylight too. Um, not the best way to start a date. Look, give me a minute, just to collect my thoughts, yeah? Then we'll sort your flatmate out."

"Wouldn't you rather go home to your wife?"

"My wife?"

Laura treated him to the 'you're so naive' look that Christmas had directed at her a minute ago. Then she held up the wedding ring.

"It fell out your pocket after he ran off."

Allen looked at the ring, then at her, then back to the ring. He opened his mouth to speak, but Laura interrupted him.

"Oh, don't you dare. Don't you even try to tell me you have an arrangement. Don't tell me she doesn't mind, or I'll phone her myself and confirm it."

"It's not like how it seems," he said.

"Uh huh." Laura tossed the ring to him in an imitation of Christmas. "But it's close enough. I think it's best if we just cut our losses on this one. I don't want to spend the rest of the evening talking to police, and I don't want to have an enraged wife tearing at my hair, so I'll just go home now. Goodbye, Allen."

"I could give you a lift home, at least," said Allen.

"Goodbye, Allen," she said, more forcibly, turned and strode away, the indignant victim of a wannabe adulterer.

Five minutes later Laura found Christmas in the pickup. She flung open the passenger door, slammed it shut behind her and glared at him.

"What?" he said, looking up from a small machine in his lap.

"You know what."

"No. You're the Listener, not me. What's up?"

"That. Back there. The mugging. That's what."

"I was as gentle as I could be, even though he wasn't a very nice person, leading you on like that. Besides, it was you that kicked him, not me."

"You lied to me."

"No. I was merely economical with the truth."

"It's the same thing. You deliberately kept that part of the plan from me. I thought you were just going to lift his wallet or something."

"Wouldn't have worked. I told you. This way he's not aware his card has been cloned, which is safer for you."

"But you could have told me."

"And you could have been Listened to. Or given it away, or flinched when I turned up. No, it was better this way."

She thumped him hard on his shoulder.

"No! No, you don't lie to me. You don't dupe me like everyone else. I'm not some mark you're setting up. Don't you dare, don't you dare use me, Andrew Christmas, or I will march into the Guild and give you up."

"No you won't. That's suicide, and you know it."

"Look at me. Look me in the eyes and tell me I won't do it."

Christmas looked into her eyes. After a second or two he nodded slowly.

"Fair enough. No more secrets. I'm sorry."

"Well... well, so you should be," said Laura. She felt as though she'd just stepped on the top stair that wasn't there. "What else have you missed out?"

"Nothing." He paused, staring out of the windscreen for a moment. "No, nothing. The rest is simply as we discussed. The good news is, we can move everything up to tonight. We have his card. We have his fingerprint. I've finished laminating the card." He pulled out the card from the machine on his lap. "I've cloned his fingerprint onto this strip here. All you need do to gain access is to swipe the card and place the strip on the fingerprint reader. Best to try and be surreptitious when you do. Find the server room, plug in the silver bullet, and Bob's your uncle. Then we hide away, get to the Nielson hearings, and we all live happily ever after. Simple."

"That's your plan?"

"Broadly, yes. I'll fully admit you've got the most exciting role, but we that only sit and hack also play our part. I can't go into the Guild. I'll stand out like a sore thumb. Believe me, I'd much rather do this myself."

"You know, I think you would. You get off on all this spy stuff, don't you."

Christmas laughed. "Well, tell me honestly, hand on heart. Haven't you felt more alive in the last few days than ever you have before?"

"Shut up," said Laura. Then she stared out of the passenger window to hide the blush that would tell Christmas he was right.