A few drinks later they'd reached the maudlin stage. "Shit, it's tough out there at the moment, though" one of the Compliance people said. "We're fucking lucky we're here and not in . . ."

"Iraq" someone else suggested.

"Well we're fucking lucky we're not in Iraq, but I meant with the global financial crisis."
Sacha, barely listening, had a start: it was the first time she could recall anyone using that phrase in real life, rather than reading it off a teleprompter. "We're lucky we're in Australia" the speaker continued. "We're lucky we're in our company, you know they'd fight hard to keep any of us on."

"You reckon?"

"They'd have to" someone else said, "last time they tried to fire anyone the union was all over 'em."

"Wait 'til after the budget" Sacha said. "Aren't gonna be as many government contracts after that."

"When is the budget, anyway?" someone asked.

"Twelfth of May" Sacha said, surprised that anyone wouldn't know. But she had to remind herself that none of them had been brought up in a city where the ebb and flow of every business was determined by the Government's spending and changes of heart and unexpected displays of generosity.

"Well either way we're lucky we're here."

"Lucky we're not in Mexico" someone said.

"Lucky we're not pigs."

"No, we'd be lucky if we were pigs at the moment. It's because swine 'flu is swine 'flu and not human 'flu that it fucks humans up."

"Is that true?"

"Like when Europeans landed in Australia, and they brought all their diseases with 'em and the Aborigines died from 'em, even though they weren't lethal to Europeans. 'Cause their immune systems weren't used to them."

"I don't think this swine 'flu's such a big deal" someone said. "Doesn't it sound like a bit of a beat-up to you?"

"Do you reckon I'd get in trouble if I said I had it so I could get a sickie?" someone asked.

Everyone else looked at him. "Might cause a bit of consternation" someone said.