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‘Doesn’t bother me,’ Jordan said. ‘I believe in taking people as you find them. I’m an individualist. And a capitalist.’

‘And surprisingly well informed,’ Kohn said. ‘Considering.’ He leaned back. Over to you.

Jordan peered around in a way that triggered Kohn’s memory of how Janis had looked over her shoulder that morning.

‘Uh…is the ANR legal here?’

Kohn smiled. ‘That’s not a simple question but, if having an office block with its name in lights is anything to go by, yes. And we do have free speech, as you may have noticed.’

Jordan sighed, shoulders sagging a little.

‘Stigmata again…’

Kohn nodded. ‘The right of free speech is one thing,’ he said. ‘But the stuff in that glass is the best thing going for helping you exercise it.’

Jordan took a sip of whisky and began to talk.

While Jordan was getting a round in, Janis and Moh conferred frantically.

‘Do you think he’s…on to us?’ Janis whispered.

‘Some kind of agent?’ Kohn shook his head. ‘Anything like that, it’d be someone I know…He’s just sharp. Heard me asking around.’

‘We could get him in on this. You want to keep off the net, and I’m no good on it. He is.’

Kohn gazed at her. ‘That’s an idea.’

They shifted apart as Jordan came back, looking down and moving like someone steering a car with his elbows. He smiled at Janis as he put the drinks down.

‘I’m impressed,’ Kohn said. ‘Really. You’ve sifted an incredible amount of stuff off the net, come up with a big spread of ideas about what’s going on. How did you get that good, back there?’

Jordan scowled at his drink, then looked up. ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘I was using better kit than I’ve ever had before, and I was doing the same sort of thing as I do at work. Did at work. A feel for how the markets move, like Mrs Lawson told me today.’ He laughed. ‘And a feel for virtual reality from playing Paluxy, I guess.’

‘What’s Paluxy?’ Janis asked.

‘Dinosaur-hunting game. It’s in the only VR arcade Beulah City’s got. Noah’s Park.’

‘I see,’ Kohn said. He glanced sidelong at Janis, who didn’t see, either. ‘You came here looking to put some flesh on what you found. So did we.’ He spoke slowly, trying to get his zooming, looping thoughts into some kind of formation-flying. ‘Or, maybe, we’re the flesh. So now you’ve got a choice. You can go and do whatever it is you really wanted to do in Norlonto that you couldn’t do in BC – read, net-surf, get laid, whatever – and forget about this. Or you can come in on it with us. If that’s what you decide, we’ll tell you all we know.’

Moh leaned closer and spoke quietly, barely moving his lips. He was sure even Janis couldn’t hear him. ‘And if you betray us, I’ll kill you.’

He straightened up and smiled at Jordan as if he’d just given him a hot betting tip, watching the fear and eagerness that seemed, now, so evident on Jordan’s carefully impassive face.

‘OK,’ Jordan said. ‘Let me think, OK? You’re not talking about anything that…would be criminal, here?’

‘Nope,’ Moh said.

Janis shook her head fiercely.

‘You’re not working for the’ – he lowered his voice, his face squirming with distaste – ‘government or the UN or anything like that?’

Moh guffawed, putting an arm around Janis’s shoulders and slapping Jordan on the back.

‘You’re all right,’ he said.

Jordan looked pleased and embarrassed.

‘So what’s this big secret, and what do you want me to do?’

Moh looked around. ‘Surprising as it may seem, this ain’t exactly the time or the place for talking about secrets. As to what we want you to do, basically it’s just what you have been doing. But with a bit more to go on, which is what we can give you. I live near here and you can use our place as a base until you get somewhere for yourself. If that’s what you want.’ He passed Jordan one of his business cards and gave him a quick rundown on the Collective.

‘So what do we tell the comrades?’ Janis asked.

‘As near the truth as possible,’ Kohn said. ‘Jordan’s helping us with research, and building up a database of possible contacts, customers…’

‘OK,’ Jordan said, ‘but why