Then Ergo sees a picture of his former master on the screen, bathed in a light that his friends cannot touch, and he stands up on the chair and begins to bark. He’s sad and angry and hopeful. He doesn’t understand. But the bark adds to the crescendo of sounds in the old man’s head. And it builds.

He sifts through letters that his nephew wrote to his ex-girlfriend but never sent, and some notes to himself. There’s a bank statement that shows he had little money but wasn’t in any debt.

And Ergo barks loudly and the television says Mense van keuse. And the old man finds another envelope in his box of random trinkets. And the colours swell. And the sounds merge into a deep hum. And he does something he hasn’t done for more than twenty years.

He blacks out.

56

DEAL IN CERTAINTY

When you’re the leader of a cult, when you’re killing a lot of people, the key is to focus on the things that you can control.

Take Bordeaux and Neckarsulm and Linköping and mark them down as free marketing. They’re building the brand. But you can’t control what happens everywhere.

Think locally, act globally. You know this.

Take ten high-school students in Tinley Park, Illinois. Stand them around the centre circle of their sports field. Feel pleased with yourself that all the horrific school shootings have not dented or infringed your rights to keep and bear arms. Give these kids a gun. Each. Have them stand around that circle and hold the gun to the head of the person on their right.

They don’t have to say go.

Or pull.

But they do have to count down from three.

And when they are found slumped around the scarlet-and-gold school logo, crimson clashing with that sacred emblem, you notice that nine of them have a small hole in the left temple and a larger exit wound to the right. But one has a hole in the back of their head where some weakling didn’t have the gumption to pull the trigger on their friend and left them with the sight of nine dead peers and the task of choking down on their own barrel.

And this is how you know they are not the real People of Choice.

Because they had one.

Everybody on the bridge was always going to jump.

It is controlled and crafted.

In Sweden, there was no 839 – Dentist. He was Noah Holmgren.

In France, there was no 621 – Lecturer. She was Ines Dupont.

So take your Harald Yeomans and your not-future-leaders-of-America and use them for what they are: free publicity; spreading the word, broadening your reach. By having it out there, everywhere, everybody watching, waiting, it keeps you hidden. If you focus on what you control.

None of these people count.

All that counts now is 234–235.

And they’re in.

Almost ready.

A little more work to do.