Pick Your Poison. Lauren Child

and replaced the lid on his fountain pen.

      The interview-stroke-grilling at an end, Ruby stood, shook hands with all present, and with much relief left the room. She took some bubblegum from her pocket and popped it in her mouth. The taste of strawberry reminded her reassuringly of less complicated days. She was looking forward to getting back home – it had been a long Saturday and she was tired.

      She blew a bubblegum bubble as she walked to the exit, but leaving wasn’t going to be so easy.

      ‘Agent Redfort.’ The voice of the administrator came across the Spectrum intercom system. ‘Agent Redfort, please report to Dr Selgood.’

      Pop went the gum.

      ‘You have to be kidding,’ muttered Ruby.

      Ruby walked over to Buzz’s desk. ‘How about we do this some other time?’ she suggested.

      ‘The psychiatrist will see you now,’ said Buzz.

      

      RUBY HAD ALREADY HAD THE DUBIOUS PLEASURE OF MEETING THE SPECTRUM PSYCHIATRIST NOT SO LONG AGO, when she had been suffering from a bad case of fearlessness.

      What Ruby thought of as ‘doing what it takes’ Selgood had called ‘the miracle complex’ – a syndrome that prevented fear from kicking in since the sufferer could or would not accept that death was even a possibility. The result was that those afflicted put themselves in unnecessary danger. Ruby had seen risk and danger as all part of the job.

      Interestingly, she had changed her tune since her little encounter with LvL. It still didn’t mean she was thrilled to be here.

      DR SELGOOD: ‘Good to see you in one piece.’

      RUBY: ‘How many pieces were you expecting me to be in?’

      DR SELGOOD: ‘It says in this report that you fell from a hotel rooftop.’

      RUBY: ‘Can I just say that was not down to me.’

      DR SELGOOD: ‘You were pushed?’

      RUBY: ‘I was dropped, but technically it amounts to the same thing.’

      DR SELGOOD: ‘But you climbed up to the top of that building yourself?’

      RUBY: ‘It wasn’t so hard, I took the stairs most of the way.’

      DR SELGOOD: ‘And found yourself on a rooftop with a dangerous and unstable felon.’

      RUBY: ‘I wasn’t exactly planning on her being up there.’

      DR SELGOOD: ‘So what was the plan?’

      RUBY: ‘To stop an actress being dropped from a great height.’

      DR SELGOOD: ‘You knew this was going to happen?’

      RUBY: ‘I was fairly convinced.’

      DR SELGOOD: ‘And there was no one else who could have prevented this?’

      RUBY: ‘No.’

      DR SELGOOD: ‘And did you succeed?’

      RUBY: ‘Yes.’

      DR SELGOOD: ‘You prevented the actress from being dropped and killed?’

      RUBY: ‘No, but yes.’

      DR SELGOOD: ‘Meaning?’

      RUBY: ‘No, she wasn’t killed, but yes, she fell anyway.’

      DR SELGOOD: ‘But she didn’t die?’

      RUBY: ‘No.’

      DR SELGOOD: ‘And why was that?’

      RUBY: ‘Hitch caught her.’

      DR SELGOOD: ‘So did you in fact need to be up there on that roof to prevent her from dying?’

      RUBY: ‘Look Doc, I am hearing you, and I do get where we are going with this, but I had to get up there because I had figured out the tightrope walker’s intention and there wasn’t a whole lotta time to persuade him otherwise.’

      DR SELGOOD: ‘So you alone knew what was going to happen to the actress?’

      RUBY: ‘No, I managed to contact Hitch and he contacted those other Spectrum guardians of the galaxy, but time was tight.’

      DR SELGOOD: ‘So you went ahead alone?’

      RUBY: ‘What would you have done, let her go splat because no one else arrived on time?’

      DR SELGOOD: ‘Maybe I would; most people don’t have your unwavering courage.’

      RUBY: ‘Try living with the memory of knowing you might have been able to save someone if only you had possessed the nerve to run up a flight of stairs, climb out of a window and stand on a roof shouting.’

      DR SELGOOD: ‘So you are saying that you felt your very presence on that rooftop might save the actress’s life?’

      RUBY: ‘Now you’re making me sound like I have a god complex.’

      DR SELGOOD: ‘Do you?’

      RUBY: ‘I reckon that’s your job to figure. I have far more important things to think about.’

      Dr Selgood nearly smiled at that one. ‘I’m going to suggest you take on some psychological training. Meanwhile you might want to read this.’ He handed her a book entitled Six Seconds Could Save Your Life.

      ‘Sure, thanks Doc. I could use a light read; I left my book at home.’

      Hitch, it seemed, could not be contacted, and so Ruby had to return to Cedarwood Drive alone. During the short subway ride, she opened Dr Selgood’s book and began reading. Actually it wasn’t as irritating as she had imagined and there seemed to be some evidence that this simple technique might actually work.

      Basically, the idea was this: if you found yourself in a stressful, frightening or emotionally unsettling situation, you should take six seconds to quietly reflect before making any decisions. It was a simple concept, but there was some science behind it too: as Ruby flicked through the pages she saw that there had been some research showing that this moment of reflection helped the prefrontal cortex to modulate signals from the amygdala – which was where anger, fear and aggression were registered.

      She thought she might try and give this technique a go; it was worth a shot.

      Not wanting to alert anyone to her late arrival home, Ruby went in the back way through the yard and climbed the tree to her window. She went into the bathroom, took out her lenses, looked in the mirror, debated whether she should have a shower and rejected the idea before falling fully clothed onto her bed.

       Meanwhile …

       … the prison officer handed prisoner 2185 his package.

       It had already been opened and checked by the prison security