Once, as a small boy walking home from school, Richard had encountered a rat, in a ditch by the side of the road. When the rat saw Richard it had reared up on to its hind legs and hissed, and jumped, terrifying Richard. He backed away, marvelling that something so small had been so willing to fight something so much larger than itself. Now Anaesthesia stepped between Richard and Varney. She was less than half his size, but she glared at the big man and bared her teeth, and she hissed like an angry rat at bay.
