"Oh believe me, I know." The good thing was that hopefully this little universe-hopping side trip would mean no assassins. "I am very, very proactive when it comes to safety arrangements."

"Nobody knows how useful someone is who can just sit down and pound numbers until they squeak. We are like air," Anwei said, waving her own hand as though to demonstrate. "You don't notice we are even here - until we are gone."

She clutched her throat and mimed a moment of suffocation, and then giggled.