In the library of his father, who sits behind his desk. The Russian whore is standing next to him, one hand on her husband’s shoulder as if they are posing for an oil portrait, the future prime minister and his spouse, who carries the geezer’s child in her stomach. Thome sits down. He looks at the old man. He thinks: you fossil. I can already see the livor mortis on your sallow skin, I see the gout in your old claws, I smell your old balls, and nothing, nothing has changed for you, because you’ll be dead soon. While people like me will live on in machines after we’ve drained your swamp. His father starts to speak: “It’s time to arrange my inheritance. In the future I’ll be in far more danger than now, as I’ll hold an important political office.” Clearing of the throat. Tense silence. Humanity’s IQ has been dropping nonstop since 1990, Thome had read yesterday. He tries to concentrate on his father’s voice. He wonders why people actually still stick to the concept of family.

“I shall divide my estate into thirds,” says Thome’s father. “One part will go to my wonderful wife, the second will go to the unborn child, and the third to you, my son. Though with the condition that you don’t let yourself get caught up in any scandal.” “What sort of scandal?” asks Thome, finding himself somewhat nauseated by the situation, such that he’d like to drop to the floor and just lie there. Thome’s father takes a deep breath. A bit of snot that’s entangled in his nose hair darts in and out like a kitten.

“Homosexuality, pedophilia, misappropriation, compulsive gambling, bestiality, violent crime. That sort of thing. In that case you will be immediately disinherited.” It’s important to know—Thome’s father has been a member for over ten years in the transnational Organization for the Restoration of the Natural Order, which opposes perversions. It had begun as the Agenda Europe network. Meaning: using lots of money and all legal means to create precedents. The draft proposal for the Polish abortion ban, the ban on same-sex marriage in various central European countries, and countless other triumphs of Christian ideas. Because: homosexuality and women taking on leading roles are the first steps toward anarchy. Parties to the organization include the Vatican, an Irish senator, members of European parliament, the head of the anti-abortion group European Dignity Watch, proxies for a Mexican billionaire, Archduke Imre von Habsburg-Lothringen, and alongside Thome’s father, Mr. Hylton, a former asset manager for the climate change denier Sir Michael Hintze. The organization is steered by the Vatican, which has managed despite all the disparate temperaments to reach a consensus, which creates laws and precedents. About order, right, well, and so forth.