Don’s hand hurts so badly that she moans quietly. And doesn’t notice that she’s moaning, and only when Hannah turns on her bedside lamp and bends over her does she become alert, snapping to from half-sleep. “You can see the bones,” says Hannah, holding Don’s hand. From the bathroom she retrieves bandages, disinfectant, and antibiotics that the Friends bought via Tor. She disinfects the hand and bandages it and gets very close to Don while doing it. Don would only have to move a few millimeters and she’d be able to give Hannah a kiss. But she doesn’t. She watches as Hannah puts out the light, feels the throbbing spreading out from her hand through her entire body, corresponding to the beat of her heart, and she can’t sleep, of course not. Because it’s cold.

Despite the stove.

They got the wood stove from a

STUDENT

HOBBIES: masturbates (according to transmitted vibrator data) twice daily for ca. 1 minute

HEALTH CONDITIONS: passive-aggressive

POLITICAL ORIENTATION: inconspicuous

INTELLIGENCE: average

CONSUMER INTERESTS: TV series, magazines, cosmetic products, vegan, otherwise no interests

The stove. Well. The young woman studies. Something. Authentic. That is—shall we say—she had studied, before student fees and so forth. Now she’s more of an inner student or, as she likes to say: “I’m a student of life.” She studies life at three different jobs. One consists of her showing her breasts. The student has an entirely representative average early-twenties urban white middle-class life plan. The student is from a middle-class family of teachers in Norfolk. Two mothers. That was still okay then. Now it is. Illegal. The student hates her body. She doesn’t smoke—well, okay, who smokes anymore?—doesn’t do drugs, takes Pilates classes, and walks ten thousand steps every day, it gets you bonus points in the social points system.

MI5 PIET

“Ten thousand steps. I knew it, you sloppy cow. If it is any at all then it’s maybe one thousand steps a day. One thousand totally pointless steps.”

THE STUDENT

Likes to earn points. She likes to walk ten thousand steps a day and would double that number if not for her breasts. Which disrupt the lithe, streamlined shape of her body. The student is saving up for a breast reduction and has lived for four years in London. Subletting. And so on. Online the student opposes: circumcision, shechita, factory farming, climate change, the financial system, low income taxes for billionaires, fracking and nuclear power, atomic weapons, and surveillance. She has as her social media profile picture the symbol of the anti–coal, fracking, and nuclear power movement.

MI5 PIET

Spits his breakfast onto his keyboard, laughing.