Kath woke up.

She allowed the strange dream (was it a dream?) of a little girl, weeping inconsolably over the burnt wreckage of a computer, to fade slowly away. Her ears rang with the memory of an immense noise. The shouting. Rhythmical hammering. Her own screams. She could smell the creature's stale breath and see its wild eyes.

'What happened?' she gasped, throat dry and painful.

'You tell me,' Craig said, appearing at her side like a pale, frightened ghost. He handed her a glass of water. Supported her head as she drank gratefully. She winced and nodded thanks, embarrassed at the humiliation, but feeling too weak to complain. She ached all over.

'I ache all over,' she said.

'I'm not surprised. We found you thrashing about on the floor screaming your head off. Fitting, or something.'

'Where did he go?'

'Omega-Five? God knows. He was gone long before we got to you.'

'And the others? How are they?'

'Fine, fine.' He scratched his ear nervously. 'A bit distressed, but we calmed them all down.' He avoided her eyes. Kath was not convinced.

'Fine?' she said. 'Behind the desk, in the gallery,' she continued, 'I saw - I saw -'

'I know.' Craig looked serious then. Worried, even. That was unusual for him, well-known Master of Disdain for all his colleagues. 'It was Frank,' he said quietly. 'What was left of him.'

'Oh God.'

'Yeah. But not today.' Kath ignored the jibe. Frank had been quite a religious man. Craig was not.

'How's Jez?' she asked.

'In hospital,' Craig said. Kath nodded. They would have to name a wing after him at this rate. First the inexplicable spontaneous combustion and now this. The company would be getting rid of him soon.

'Figures,' she said. 'Shock?'

'Something like that. Whatever,' Craig said, shrugging. Kath knew he did not care. 'Listen,' he said, 'what really happened in there?'

'I - I don't know.' And she realised she really didn't. The more she concentrated, the more her head pounded, and the more vague it became. There were some memories, but they were really just flashes of horror and noise. A face twisted by deep anger caused by unimaginable pain. She could not believe it. This was not the kind of place she had worked in for so many years. She would not work in that kind of place.

'We heard a terrible noise, like drumming and screaming,' Craig went on. 'Jez said it sounded like a bunch of Zombies having a music festival.'

'It sounded like hell.' And then, even as she wondered how honest she should be with him, Kath found she was telling Craig about the creature, her best and worst test subject, Omega-Five. How she had tried to sneak up on him and all the subjects in the room had turned on her. She explained how he had seemed to know exactly where she was even though he wasn't looking. As if he could see through the subjects' collective eyes. And then... nothing.

'They were all synchronised somehow. As if they all shared the same thoughts.' She noticed the look on Craig's face and added, 'I know, stupid huh? Probably just got over excited or something.'

'I wouldn't be so sure,' Craig said gravely. 'I mean, we're messing with some serious shit down here right? Serious top secret government shit.' Great, Kath thought. The conspiracy had got to him too. He would be chanting about the Chosen One next. Jez was bad enough.

'Not you too?' she sighed.

'You gotta ask these questions girl, you gotta ask. Especially now.'

'Hmm.'

It wasn't that Kath didn't ask herself the same thing. It was more that she felt the questioning itself was wrong; surely they were all good people, trying to cure the world's ills and get paid in the process? Just a job, that's all. A secret job. With human subjects. As if she could forget how she got here in the first place. She saw her father's proud smile, his body shaking and fading as she was taken away. On his knees, calling, I will get you out, love, I will get you out!

'There's nothing else?' Craig persisted, bringing Kath back to the present.

'Not a thing,' Kath said. Apart from the blood. The grey eyes. Rancid breath as he screamed into her face. She thought if he still had tear ducts, he would have been crying too. There was so much pain there, so much rage. She had done her best to look after him, and this was how he repaid her.

By leaving her alive.

'I'm tired,' she said. Craig nodded. He began to lean forwards, and then thought better of it, turning the motion into an awkward pat on the shoulder. Kath grinned, and poked him in the ribs.

'I'll be fine,' she said, 'see you tomorrow?'

'Sure.'

As soon as he had gone, Kath searched her bag for her company tablet, called up a terminal with a swipe of her index finger and shoved in her earpiece.

'Unicorn, are you there?' she said, logging into the intranet. No messages. No news. Nothing. Even within its own walls, you had to admire the Company's secrecy policy..

The earpiece crackled. 'I AM HERE.'

'Call up the Speers file again, will you?' If it were possible for a Company AI to sigh, Unicorn would certainly have done so.

'AGAIN?' Unicorn said. 'YOU DO NOT THINK YOU HAVE HAD ENOUGH PUNISHMENT FOR ONE DAY?'

There were times when Kath regreted the painstaking hours spent teaching Uni figures of speech. At least this time he had used it appropriately. 'Don't play games with me today, Uni. Call up the last one. You know the one I mean. The corridors. The getaway.'

'YOU ARE NOT WELL. YOU NEED TO REST. CRAIG SAID -'

'I don't care what Craig said,' she snapped. 'I need to do it now, while this infernal noise is still in my head. There's something bugging me.' Unicorn waited. Kath presumed he was giving her an opportunity to think about what she was asking, before deciding sleep and rest were the better option. She folded her arms defiantly.

'VERY WELL.' Unicorn said at last. 'BUT IN TEN MINUTES I WILL COMMENCE THE SLEEP MUSIC PROTOCOL.'

'Great. Thanks.' Kath settled back in the bed. 'Play.'

The screen flickered, showing a white room. A wall of outdated computers.

A little boy strapped to a big chair.