Picking up on her raised voice, the sim-pet barked again and moved forward, sniffing at her hand. Another contrivance—it couldn’t smell.

Startled, Theo jerked her hand away. The sim-pet cocked its head, apparently taken aback at what it had no doubt reasoned was a landslide win for the dog. A moment later it switched tactics, moving swiftly and seamlessly from cat to parrot to hamster and back to cat again, while Theo stared at it with open-mouthed fascination.

‘What is it?’ she whispered, her voice husky with awe.

‘That, Theo, is a sim-pet.’

‘Say what?’

‘A sim-pet. It’s programmed to mimic the pet that best suits your personality and your mood, although you can always order it to be a specific—’ He stopped, looking at the sim-pet, which was now whinnying, pawing at the ground. ‘Looks like you’re the horsey kind.’

With obvious effort Theo tore her eyes away from the sim-pet. ‘Where are all the—the—the …’

‘The animals?’

‘Yes! Where they comin’ from? Inside it?’

‘Well, yes, but not how you would imagine. They’re programmed into—’

‘You said into. That means they’re inside, don’t it?’

‘Well, yes, I suppose you could say so. But that’s not the point. The point is that you, Theo, now have your very own sim-pet to play with.’

‘Can I? Really?’ She was almost trembling with excitement.

‘Of course,’ said Albert, smiling at how easy it had been all along. He should have thought of the sim-pet sooner. ‘You can play with it all day, if you like. It doesn’t get tired.’

‘Can I ride it?’

‘Well, yes,’ he said, taken aback. ‘I suppose it would take your weight.’

‘And if I want other animals, I can get ’em?’

‘Yes, yes. Of course. So you have fun now, all right. I’m just going to finish getting ready for work.’

She wasn’t paying attention; she was too busy trying to balance herself on one foot on the sim-pet’s back. Albert smiled again and walked away, resisting the urge to rub his hands together and chortle out loud at the devious genius, the simplicity and perfection of his scheme.