If you meet me, have some sympathy 20

We found him eventually, the target. At least I assumed it was a ‘him’ – the noticeboard on his social network stall was covered in barely comprehensible geek-speak. And there, in amongst it all, were the tell-tale traces of his life’s work, his master-program that would eliminate all evil. No wonder the bosses wanted him taken out. Even Theresa couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

But of course I’d been numbingly stupid all along – first to assume that the bosses were all behind me in this, and second to think I was the only one of us who could take physical form inside cyberspace. I should have noticed the stalls close by and the darkness peering out of them. Hell had clearly been working meticulously on its profile pages for a very long time, perhaps even as a founder member of the network.

As Mephisto materialised, I could see what was coming but somehow I couldn’t move fast enough. I tried to shout out a warning to Theresa but my mouth was dry. The old devil turned and smiled as he tossed the virus over, before vanishing into code again.

The network’s guns opened up and we didn’t stand a chance.