‘And being touched,’ said Lucy. ‘The laying on of hands – not in a faith-healer way, but just as an acknowledgement that my body is in need of attention. I’ve spent so much time in hospitals looking at computer images of my brain or talking to a doctor who is reading a printout of some test results. I think that’s one of the appeals of complementary medicine: the acupuncturist and the herbalist take my pulses and look at my tongue and touch my muscles; they are delivering the massive reassurance of dealing directly with my body and not just with my data.’

‘Totally,’ said Saul.

‘Listen, I must let you have your Capo Santo talk,’ said Lucy, beginning to sit up in the hammock.

‘You don’t have to go anywhere,’ said Hunter. ‘I’m going to lay my hands on you,’ he said, gently easing her back into a lying position, ‘now I know how much you like that.’

‘Why, Doctor, I feel inexplicably well,’ said Lucy, as she subsided into the hammock.

‘We call it personal haptic gap closure therapy, or PHGCT,’ said Hunter sagely.

‘I feel so lucky to be involved in this trial,’ said Lucy. ‘I hope there are some vaguely similar people in vaguely similar circumstances who are not receiving PHGCT as a control.’

‘Don’t worry, Lucy, this is an experiment structured to the most rigorous standards.’

Lucy smiled at Hunter, who rested his hand fondly for a moment on her tummy before turning to Saul.

‘So, where are we with The Inquisition?’ he asked.

‘They want fifty per cent,’ said Saul.

‘And I want to be non-executive Pope, with fifty per cent of global revenues,’ said Hunter.

‘I offered them ten per cent,’ said Saul.

‘And?’ said Hunter.

‘Holy indignation,’ said Saul.

‘Go up to fifteen in exchange for a vigorous advertising campaign, and twenty if they also market the Equanimity helmet, which we can rebrand for them without changing the algorithm: The Peace that Passeth Understanding, Blessed Mother of Tranquillity, whatever works for them.’

‘Father Guido told me they were having problems with their Stations of the Cross virtual reality program,’ said Lucy. ‘He became quite confessional over lunch. I think he thought the Espresso Martinis were just iced coffee, but in any case, please don’t do anything to get him into trouble; he’s such a sweet man.’

‘We’ll say that the only reason we’re considering profit sharing is thanks to his superhuman negotiating skills,’ said Hunter.

‘With Avatar, we’ve got the technology to help with that,’ said Saul.

‘No more profit sharing,’ said Hunter. ‘This techno-religion is going to be huge.’

‘How about less profit share and we fix the Stations?’ asked Saul.

‘That could work,’ said Hunter.