I could hear ver breathing slowly, trying to calm verself. Then ve explained, reluctantly: “They believe that the identity of the Keystone is determined, preordained … along with everything else in history, including the killing of any ‘rivals.’ But determinism doesn’t take away the illusion of power – have you ever known an Islamic fatalist to be passive? It’s not as if the hand of God is going to reach out of the sky and make sure that they spare the Keystone – or some improbable conspiracy of fate will frustrate them, if they go after the wrong physicist. There’s no need for supernatural intervention, when the whole universe and everyone in it is just a conspiracy to explain the Keystone’s existence. Whoever they murder, for whatever reason, they can’t get it wrong .

“So … if they kill all the rivals of the theorist with the TOE they favor, then that TOE must be the one that brings the universe into being. And whether they’ve really chosen anything or not, the result is the same. The TOE they want, and the TOE they get, end up being identical.”

It hit me, belatedly. “And they’re in Kyoto, too? You think they got to Nishide – that’s why he’s sick? And they got to Sarah, before she could expose them?”

“Most likely.”

“Have you told the Kyoto police? Do you have people, there – ?” I stopped; ve could hardly discuss countermeasures, when we were almost certainly being monitored. I said wearily, “What’s so wonderful about Buzzo’s TOE, anyway?”

Kuwale was derisive. “They think it leaves open a chance of access to other universes, seeded from pre-space by other Big Bangs. Mosala and Nishide both rule that out completely; other universes might still exist, but they’re unreachable. Black holes, wormholes, in their TOEs, all lead back to this one cosmos.”

“And they’re willing to kill Mosala and Nishide – because one universe isn’t enough for them?”

Kuwale protested sardonically, “Think of the infinite riches we’d be throwing away, if we chose a self-contained cosmos. Take a long-term perspective. Where would we flee to, when the Big Crunch came? One or two lives is a small price to pay for the future of all humanity – isn’t it?”

I thought of Ned Landers again, trying to step outside the human race, in order to take control of it. You couldn’t step outside the universe – but out-explaining every TOE theorist with Anthrocosmology, and then playing choose-your-own-creator, came close.

Kuwale said despondently, “Maybe Mosala is right to despise us, if this is where our ideas have led.”

I wasn’t going to argue. “Does she know? That there are ACs who want to kill her?”

“She does and she doesn’t.”

“Meaning what?”