Kuwale grinned. “And rightly so.” Ve added stoically, “But I know she thinks AC is even lower than the Ignorance Cults; the very fact that we desist from god-talk only makes us more insidious, in her eyes. She thinks we’re parasites feeding off science: following the work of TOE theorists, stealing it, abusing it … and not even having the honesty to speak the language of the anti-rationalists.” Ve shrugged lightly. “She despises us. I still respect her, though. And whether she’s the Keystone or not … she’s one of the greatest physicists of her generation, she’s a powerful force for technolibération … why should I need to deify her, to value her life?”

“Okay.” This whole laid-back attitude seemed far too good to be true – but it wasn’t inconsistent with anything I’d heard from Conroy. “That’s mainstream AC. Now tell me about the heretics.”

Kuwale groaned. “The permutations are … endless. Imagine any variation you like, and there’s sure to be someone on the planet who embraces it as the truth. We don’t have a patent on Anthrocosmology. There are ten billion people out there, and they’re all capable of believing anything they want to – however close to us in metaphysics, however far away in spirit.”

This was pure evasion, but I didn’t get a chance to press the point. Kuwale saw a tram ahead, beginning to move away from its stop, and ve started running for it. I struggled to keep up; we both made it, but I took a while to get my breath back. We were headed west, out toward the coast.

The tram was only half-full, but Kuwale remained standing in the doorway, gripping a hand rail and leaning out into the wind. Ve said, “If I show you the people you need to recognize, will you let me know if you see them? I’ll give you a contact number, and an encryption algorithm, and all you have to do is—”

I said, “Slow down. Who are these people?”

“They’re a danger to Violet Mosala.”

“You mean, you suspect they’re a danger.”

“I know it.”

“Okay. So who are they?”

“What difference would it make if I told you their names? It wouldn’t mean anything to you.”

“No, but you can tell me who they’re working for. Which government, which biotech company…?”

Vis face hardened. “I told Sarah Knight too much. I’m not repeating that mistake.”

“Too much for what? Did she betray you? To … SeeNet?”