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Spend a few days catching up on your backlog of paperwork. If absolutely necessary, you can handle a simple case, but only from Wednesday – any sooner and Jennifer would kill me. OK? Then you get a full week off work, no arguments. And no coming in just to see what we’re up to. I know what you’re like.’
    Jonah said nothing in reply, and looked away.
    Sam continued. ‘After that … well, you know we have a group coming from San Diego.’ Jonah nodded. Five new revivers and a dozen technicians were coming over for training. ‘You were already going to be helping out, but I think you should focus on that and do as few revivals as possible. At least two months with week-long tails, then back to full workload gradually.’
    Jonah’s face crumpled.
    ‘Sorry,’ Sam added. ‘But believe me, Jonah – there’s nothing wrong with you that rest won’t fix.’
    Jonah looked up and sighed, resigned to it. ‘OK, Sam. OK.’
    *   *   *
    Just after five, as the end of his working day approached, he headed to the office kitchen to make a coffee and kill some time. He heard Never Geary’s familiar voice coming from within, and found Never speaking to Sam Deering.
    ‘There he is,’ Never said, a grin spreading. ‘How are things?’
    Jonah grinned back. ‘What are you doing in? Thought you weren’t back at work until tomorrow?’
    ‘I’m just here to say hello.’
    Sam said, ‘I’ll leave you to it. We’ll talk more in the morning, Never, OK?’
    ‘OK,’ said Never. Sam left, and Never gave Jonah a conspiratorial smile. ‘Sam wants me to babysit you until you go on leave.’
    ‘He told you about that?’
    ‘Of course. Now, how are you doing?’
    ‘Stressed and tired.’
    ‘I can understand it. It sounded extreme.’
    ‘It was different, Never. Sam and Jennifer kept on about how it was overwork, and that I’d been there before. But it was different. And I wish you’d been there instead of J. J.’
    ‘J. J.’s good,’ said Never, raising an eyebrow.
    ‘You keep the cameras running. J. J. cut them off the moment we got a result.’
    Like J. J., Never was a revival technician, responsible for setting up and managing the hardware needed for the task. The three video feeds were only part of it; two additional audio recordings were made, and everything was recorded onto both flash drives and hard disk. Redundancy and careful design meant that problems during a session were rare, and hadn’t yet proved disastrous. It was a system Never was proud of – he had been key in the original design. Now a countrywide standard, it was also used by many forensic revival groups in the rest of the world.
    Revival technicians needed their own skill set. Conscientious and precise, confident and resourceful, they had to be comfortable around revivers and able to stomach death. As the most senior in the office, Never was given the highest-profile and most difficult cases, which meant that much of his work was with the three best revivers – Jason Shepperton, Pru Dryden, and Jonah.
    ‘When the coordinating officer gives the word, recording can stop,’ said Never. ‘The police are usually too keen to get hold of the footage to warrant the wait. If he’d kept recording, all the cameras would have seen is you freaking out over nothing.’
    ‘And then I’d know it was all in my head. You record to the end, though. Always.’ He looked Never in the eye.
    ‘I do,’ said Never. ‘Force of habit.’ Jonah’s gaze was still on him, and there was no avoiding it. ‘All right, all right. I’ll have a word with the others.’
    Jonah nodded and smiled. ‘Thanks.’
    ‘Now,’ said Never, making a point of looking at his watch. ‘Half an hour before you knock off, so let me check my mail and I’ll hang around until quitting time. Then we can share a cab.’
    Jonah narrowed his eyes. His apartment was a ten-minute walk away. ‘Why would I want a cab, Never?’
    ‘I need a drink. And you need