He sidled across the room to the window, only daring to breath in again when a soft breeze wafted in, had a good look around and wafted right out again after deciding that the swamp hadn’t been such a bad place after all.

It took Lord Ludvig a few moments to calm down, wipe the sheen of sweat from his wrinkled, sagging cheeks and regain his composure. “Now where was I? Oh yes. Hasn’t Mr Da Silva arrived yet?”

“I’ll just look, Sir.”

As Kim Lee noiselessly closed the door behind him, Lord Ludvig let out a deep sigh and reclined in his chair. He closed his eyes and tried to relax, only partially successful in ignoring the conflagration consuming his intestines.

After a few moments he opened his eyes again, letting them roam at random across the office. Having toured the room and sent back snapshots to the synapses back home of the dull green paint, the slightly threadbare carpet, and the worn and stained upholstery, his eyes took a break and came to rest on the huge map mounted on the wall directly opposite the desk.

There, on a scale of 1:100, were depicted the six main regions of the tiny colony of Bugrawlia: the Western Desert province of Sahhabi; the Eastern Rain Forests of Entropica and Pilau, the Burnt Orange Free State on the central plains, the northern mountain province of Tibutan; Bugur’t in the great southern swamplands, and New Nippon on the southern coast.