“Why don’t I get my face in this?” he suggested.

Silver eels streamed out of him, something leaking out of his life, and Ed leaking after it like a current of warmer water in a cold sea. That night was no different to any other experience in the fishtank, except perhaps for an added, gluey distance to everything he saw. Everything in there was an effort that night. He woke up on the spaceport concrete perhaps an hour later. A salt night wind was blowing. He felt sick and cold. Annie Glyph was kneeling by him. He had the feeling that she had been there for some time. That she was prepared to wait however long it took. He coughed and heaved. She wiped his mouth.

“There,” she said.

“Jesus,” said Ed. “Hey,” he said. “How was I?”

“It was a short show. As soon as you put the fishtank on your head, you had some sort of spasm. That was what it looked like.” Annie smiled. “They weren’t convinced,” she went on, “until you got out of the chair.” He had got out of the chair, she told him, to stand facing the audience for maybe a minute in the shifting light, during which time he trembled and slowly pissed himself. “It was a real twink moment, Ed. I was proud of you.” After that some muffled sounds came out of the smoky-looking substance in the tank. He shrieked suddenly and began trying to wrestle it off his head. Then he passed out and fell his length into the front row of the audience. “They weren’t happy, and we had some problems with them after that. You know, they were corporates who had paid for special seats and you were sick on their good clothes. Madam Shen talked to them, but they seemed disappointed. We had to drag you out the back way.”

“I don’t remember that.”

“It didn’t look much. You spoilt your tuxedo, rolling about in your own piss.”

“But did I say anything?”

“Oh, you told the future. You did that all right.”

“What’d I say?”

“You talked about war. You said things no one wanted to hear. Blue babies floating out of wrecked ships in empty space. Frozen babies in space, Ed.” She shivered. “No one wants to hear that kind of thing.”

“There isn’t any war,” Ed pointed out. “Not yet.”

“But there will be, Ed. That’s what you said: ‘ War!’ ”