Chapter 3
Zachary Hawkesford proved to be everything Joseph disliked about Alphas.
By Friday evening he thought he’d witnessed the full gamut of Alpha behaviours, both individually and ensemble, and now it seemed they were going for a reprise. Which would be fine if they were somewhere large and airy—the Central Hall, perhaps, or Regent’s Park—but not when they were crammed into an over-heated office tucked high in the eaves of the Palace of Westminster.
Hot water pipes ran throughout the room. Too hot in winter, unbearable in summer, the Estates department referred to it as ‘the sauna’. Adjacent rooms were used to store accumulations of old furniture and unmarked cardboard boxes. Their nearest neighbour was a mad old leftist Social Democrat on the floor below. The new Minister for Prev
