"Not having seen your other, previous ones, I couldn't say, but it was rather dismal, yes." She moved over toward Mr Smith and the contraption.

She was already more than a little concerned about John's absence, but this man's detection of the thing, and strange behaviour was just as worrying. "So why don't you tell me who you really are, and what you really want," asked him quietly. If he was UAC they had some rather unorthodox ways of searching out their target.