You had to be polite. You had to make certain reciprocal gestures. You couldn't just wade in and offend everybody.

Although apparently these guys could. And that was disappointing, because Brian believed in the rule of law. The inevitably imperfect, confusing, grindingly inefficient, occasionally corrupt, but absolutely essential rule of law. That without which we are no better than the beasts, etc. He had run his office that way: carefully, cleanly.

And now here came Sigmund and Weil, the tall one sour as Angostina bitters and the short one hard but hale, like a velvet-wrapped bowling ball, to remind him that at altitudes more vertiginous than his own the law could be tailored to suit a circumstance.

"You've already been a big help," Weil said.

"Well, I hope so. I want to be."

"Putting us in touch with the right people at the Provisional Government. And of course this thing with Lise Adams. The fact that you had a personal relationship with this woman—I mean, 'awkward' is hardly the word for it."

"Thank you for noticing," Brian said, stupidly grateful even though he knew he was being played.

"And I can assure you again that we don't want to arrest her or even necessarily talk to her directly. Lise is definitely not the target in this case."

"You're looking for the woman in the photograph."

"Which of course is why we don't want Lise getting underfoot. We hoped you could get that idea across to her…"

"I tried."

"I know, and we appreciate it. But let me tell you how this works, Brian, so you understand what our concerns are. Because when your image search came up on our database, it definitely raised eyebrows.

You said Lise explained to you why she's interested in Sulean Moi—"

"Sulean Moi was seen with Lise's father before he disappeared, and she wasn't connected to the university or anyone else in the family's social circle. Given Lise's father's interest in Fourths, it's an obvious connection to make. Lise suspects the woman was a recruiter or something."

"The truth is a little more bizarre. You deal with Fourths on a regular basis, legally speaking. No surprises for you there. But the longevity treatment is only one of the medical modifications that were brought to Earth by our Martian cousins."

Brian nodded.

"We're after something a little bigger than the usual Fourth cultist here," Weil said. "Details are scarce, and I'm not a scientist, but it involves a biologically mediated attempt at communicating with the Hypothetical."

Like many of his generation Brian tended to wince at mention of the Hypotheticals, or for that matter the Spin. The Spin had ended before he was old enough to attend school, and the Hypotheticals were simply one of the more abstruse facts of daily life, an important but airy abstraction, like electromagnetism or the motions of the tides.