He looked up at the statues, tipping his head back to stare along the length of the plinth, then back out to sea. ‘Well, somebody had to,’ he finally said with a shrug.

‘Drew the short straw, huh?’

At least he had the good grace to laugh. He pulled the cap off the bottle, took a sip from it, grimaced and handed it down.

‘I’m guessing that’s not water,’ I said.

‘Newest batch,’ he said. ‘Try it.’

‘Sure you should be driving and drinking?’

‘I don’t see any traffic cops, do you?’

I took the bottle and had a sip. The whisky burned my tongue, but I took a longer swig until I felt a pleasant numbness begin to seep through me. Then I handed it back to him.

‘Just hang on to it for now,’ said Yuichi.

I shrugged and set the bottle down on the grass beside me. ‘I’ve got a question.’

‘About?’

‘Oskar said that the reason none of you ever told me the truth about who I really am, is because the Authority threatened to take away your retirement privileges if you did. Is that true? Does that mean they’d refuse to let Oskar ever retire?’

I watched him think it over, the wind catching his grey ponytail. ‘I talked to the others,’ he said at last. ‘None of us are going to say how you found out, or who told you. Fact is, one way or the other, we’d have had to tell you the truth eventually. And we did warn Bramnik and the rest of them about that.’ He smiled slightly. ‘Nadia was especially vocal regarding how idiotic the whole thing was.’

Nadia. I saw her again in my mind’s eye, sinking into the dark and freezing waters, as hands reached up to drag her down.

I looked up at him. ‘Say I went marching up to Mort Bramnik and demanded I be allowed to go and live in some safe alternate without waiting ten years. What would happen?’

‘It wouldn’t be allowed,’ he said.

‘Then we’re no better than prisoners, or indentured slaves at best.’

Yuichi looked pained. ‘Come on,’ he said. ‘You know it’s not that simple. Or even anywhere near that bad.’

I wondered what it must have been like for Yuichi and all the rest of them to see their friend – the first Jerry Beche – as good as come back to life, but with no memories of his time among them. I remembered the way Tony Nuyakpuk had looked at me the first time he saw me, and the time Nadia had said it was good to have me back, before quickly correcting herself. I especially remembered the numerous times I had walked into the Hotel du Mauna Loa and immediately felt as if I had been the subject of conversation until just a moment before.