If you meet me, have some sympathy 19

So this was the great social network. I suppose I’d expected something a little more impressive to justify the intense security. Climbing out of the link from Theresa’s home page, I gazed around at what looked like some giant expo – except that there were no people, just the stalls themselves shuffling here and there, interacting with desultory grunts. Theresa’s own one was close by, festooned with its curling photos of fluffy bunnies and the like. As she emerged beside me, another stall shambled across, its own princess pictures fluttering. Scanning the rabbits with its camera stalk, it stuck a post-it note beside one.

‘That’s Kelsie,’ Theresa explained, glancing at the note. ‘I met her once – she’s had a rough life but she’s happy here.’

It was hard work negotiating a path through unnoticed. We had one narrow escape – nothing more than a glancing contact with a notice board but the antivirus gun turrets swung towards us and we had to freeze until the alert passed over.

And all this time I was listening for the code I had heard when I first entered cyberspace – the signature tune that would lead me to my target.

He was not far away now.