It seems to me like he’s reliving a memory. Verve can enhance memories, so you relive them in glorious hyper-saturated color. It’s a strange sensation, to watch someone having sex, knowing that you’re strapped into a Chair and another woman is monitoring your physical sensors. I don’t look away, though. I’m doing my duty and observing everything, in the hope I notice what Malka wants me to.

Why has Mr. Mantel chosen this memory to relive? What is he enhancing? How will he be when he wakes up? Angrier? Ready to come back again tomorrow? And what will the Ratel suggest to him? There are so many options. To take a deal that will profit the mob. To hold back a patent or push forward another? Or they could overwrite his personality completely, and make him into whatever they want. If they have the main man of the most powerful company in the world as their puppet, think what they could do. Control the top of Sudice through Mr. Mantel, and control the bottom by sending violent, hungry Zealots, reprogrammed by Verve, into the fray. Topple the structure and make what they want of it.

After what seems like hours, Mr. Mantel and Mayor Roux have finished. Mantel unwraps her restraints and they sprawl across silken sheets.

Pillow talk. Time to focus. I shift closer, keeping to the shadows. Neither of them notices me. Even in the dream world, my temples throb and my stomach feels as though I’ve swallowed rocks, despite the fact that I turned off the brain recording.

Mantel and Roux lie next to each other, but don’t quite touch. I can’t tell if they love each other or are using each other. Maybe both.

“It’s getting out of hand,” Roux says, staring up at the ceiling. Static dances across her face. Strands of dark hair cling to her glistening forehead.

“What is?” Mantel asks, folding his hands behind his neck.

“The Ratel situation. Do you know how much of my time it’s taking up these days?”

“I can only imagine.”

She bares her teeth. “They have to be stopped, Mantel. It’s your pharmaceuticals they’ve twisted.”

“You think I don’t realize that? I don’t see how they can be stopped.”

“Yeah, yet it means the criminal bastards are out on the streets. There was a robbery last week. From a civilian. We had to cover it up. But I don’t think we’ll be able to do that much longer. And what if there’s a murder? We’ll have riots. This is a delicate balance, and I don’t want it to fall in the Ratel’s favor.”

“We’re trying to find a countermeasure, but it’s taking time.”