I said, “Have you heard about the airport?”

Ve nodded, dismayed. “And Nishide’s death. How’s Mosala taking all this?”

“She’s not falling to pieces – but I’m not sure she’s thinking straight.” Not like me.

I recounted my conversation with her. “What do you think? If she can be kept alive until someone announces the TOE on her behalf, would the moderates recant and hand over the cure?”

Kuwale didn’t look hopeful. “They might. If there was a clear proof that the TOE really had been completed, with no room for doubt. But they’re on the run, now, they can’t hand over anything—”

“They could still transmit the molecule’s structure.”

“Yeah. And then we just hope there’s a machine on Stateless which can synthesize it in time.”

“If the whole universe is a conspiracy to explain the Keystone – don’t you think she might get lucky?” I didn’t believe a word of this, but it seemed like the right thing to say.

“Explaining the Aleph moment doesn’t stretch to miraculous reprieves. Mosala doesn’t have to be the Keystone – even with Nishide dead, and Buzzo’s TOE refuted. If she survives, it will only be because the people who struggled to save her fought harder than those who struggled to kill her.” Ve laughed wearily. “That’s what a Theory of Everything means: there are no miracles, not even for the Keystone. Everyone lives and dies by exactly the same rules.”

“I understand.” I hesitated. “There’s something I have to show you. Some news that’s just broken, about Distress.”

“Distress?”

“Humor me. Maybe it means nothing – but I need to know what you think.”

I had an obligation to Reynolds not to splash his unreleased footage around. The ward was full, but there were screens either side of us, and the man in a cast in the opposite bed appeared to be sleeping. I handed Kuwale my notepad, and had it replay one of the clips, with the volume down low.

A pale, disheveled, middle-aged woman with long black hair, restrained in a hospital bed, faced the viewer squarely. She didn’t look drugged, and she certainly wasn’t exhibiting the syndrome’s characteristic behavior – but she regarded Reynolds with intense, horrified fascination.