Sam wondered if Flic had changed anything since Felicity Farnsworth had left The Royal Society, for the office was filled with priceless clutter. The walls were covered with mismatched photos and yellowed newspaper cuttings. Laboratory notes from some of the greatest discoveries in history were strewn about, forgotten.

 

Flic caught his gaze. ‘That,’ she pointed to a helix above him, ‘is one of Watson and Crick’s first diagrams of DNA. And over here,’ she buzzed across to an elongated frame that held several pages of smudged Chinese writing, ‘is Wu’s methodology for perpetual motion. There are even some of Christopher Wren’s Hidden Invention plans somewhere…’

 

‘It’s incredible… There are so many secrets and so much history locked away down here… Do you ever wonder whether the world would be a better place if it knew what was truly possible?’