The Cakey Texture of Laughter

In this fantasy fable of scientific life, two women are chatting in a cramped kitchen in North London waiting for cakes to bake, but one of them is an unhappy spy. Does anything remain of the ill-matched friendship of their childhood, a friendship cut off suddenly by traumatic events that cannot be logically explained? In another part of the city an old man in a wheelchair and his introspective young assistant sit for hours before their laptops, immersed in the intoxicating complexities of molecular bonding. Is this their harmless obsession or the accidental key that could unlock a dangerous world of hidden secrets? And who is this irresistible figure of astounding beauty, someone who never has to worry about paying the rent, travelling on the tube in the rush-hour or what to wear for a party? Simply a brilliant biochemist, or is she in reality a modern-day witch?