I AM GLAD YOU ARE AWAKE, LITTLE KATHY.

'Uni?'

DO NOT BE CONCERNED, I AM COMMUNICATING WITH YOU DIRECTLY.

'But how?'

THE PROFESSOR HAS IMPLANTED A NEUROLOGICAL MICRO MODULE INTO YOUR CEREBELLUM. NATURALLY IT WORKS THROUGH ME.

'Neuros? But it's not ready for general use yet! Good enough for Secs, maybe. But I haven't even tested this version yet! It's far too dangerous.'

THAT PARTICULAR PROBLEM WAS SOLVED FOR ME. I HOPE YOU WILL BE PLEASED TO KNOW THE PROCEDURE WAS CARRIED OUT WITH LITTLE ADVERSE EFFECT.

Kath did not like the sound of that. 'What do you mean, "little"?' she asked suspiciously.

She jumped at the sound of a little window sliding open in the white door. Two dark, expressionless eyes appeared behind the glass, observing her coldly. Kath bit her lip and waved, coquettishly. She was not surprised when this had no effect.

'Sorry,' she said to the unblinking eyes. 'I talk to myself when I'm nervous.'

IT WOULD BE BETTER IF YOU COMMUNICATED NON-VERBALLY, THERE ARE SECS GUARDING YOUR CELL.

'So I see. How am I supposed to do that?' Kath said under her breath, turning away from the door. The little window closed with a click. But she already knew. The principle of the Neuros was not that communication happened automatically, it would be insane to expect anyone to be able to process a person's every thought. Instead, the system required the host to consciously try to project a particular thought to whomever they wished to communicate with. The act of 'trying' created a particular energy signature that the Neuros could read, and then it would send whatever you were thinking.

The problem, was it did not work. There was too much going on in the average brain and the Neuros suffered terribly from interference. Often what was sent was exactly what you did not want the other person to hear. Kath had lost count of the times Jez had told her how fucking stupid he thought her ideas were, or how much he liked her ass. How much Craig resented her success in the Company. It worked to a degree on the Secs however, because they had little conscious brain activity left, responding only to simple commands.

She concentrated.

How many? she thought.

TWO.

And you have retuned my Neuros to a different band?

OF COURSE.

Good. After a while, she thought to herself - without transmitting the thought to Unicorn - it should come naturally. And how great will it be if the system really did work? Think about the upgrades, the applications!

Why did she do this to me? she asked. I still have free will, I won't follow commands without questioning them first.

I DO NOT KNOW. PERHAPS SHE IS PLANNING TO USE THE DEVICE TO MONITOR YOU.

That made some sense, she admitted. Live video and audio links beamed back to the Dragon through her treacherous eyes. And if what she had seen was true - what the hell is happening, Uni?

THE SUBJECTS ARE DEAD.

What? But even as she protested, Kath could not ignore what she had seen. It was not so much the bodies, or the blood, or the way they silently crumpled like rag dolls to the floor. No, it was the sight of the Dragon, casually watching Kath's life's work being destroyed, murdered, smiling fondly as if watching a child take its first steps.

That bitch. That bitch had taken her life, fueled her dreams, built up her career and given her the means to play with the most wonderful ideas. She had happily delivered the seeds for understanding the brain's control over the immune system. The way it fed chemicals into the bloodstream to combat disease. The means to influence its creation of new chemicals. Without her volunteers - teenaged down-and-outs who had willingly sold their own lives to save their families - the world would be a very different place.

Her fists were aching. She realised she was in danger of gouging her palms with her own nails - if it were possible, which it wasn't - and forced her hands to relax.

The Dragon had let her live.

She knew the work better than most, but she was not irreplaceable. At this point, with the anger and fear and the literal pain in her neck, she knew one thing for certain: whatever the Dragon had in mind, she would not be playing any more. For all her genius, she looked helplessly round the white room, calculating its cubic footage without really thinking about it, wondering how long she could survive if they sealed her inside, how long the air would last.

About 2 days.

There did not appear to be a choice. Information, then. She still had access to her most powerful asset, her only child, even if they had taken everything else.

What happened? she asked.

Unicorn told her.