Dream-Meera is soaking wet and shivering. Her face is confused and she’s displaying an annoying lack of interest in my distress. She’s completely preoccupied with herself.

That’s when I notice: she’s in full colour. She’s not greyscale, not like everyone else here.

‘Is this still my dream?’ she says. ‘Am I lucid-dreaming? I’ve always wanted to do this but never could.’

Oh, man. It’s like watching someone trip. I have to pull myself together and do a bit of adulting. This is not the time for me to break down.

‘Turn around, Meera.’

She obeys. Thank goodness, there is no key in her back this time.

‘You’re not sleepwalking. You’re safe, for now.’

Meera is taking in the sight of the Dream City in wonderment. Even as I’m shitting myself in the wake of the Dream City’s revelations, she is playing the kid in a candy shop.

‘This is the most incredible thing that has ever happened to me. What is this place?’

‘The Dream City. At first I thought it was the collective unconscious, but it’s more than that. It’s the Agency, or the bit of the Agency that we can perceive.’

‘You just said you were the Agency.’

‘Yeah. And you. And everyone. It’s bigger than all of us, but in a way it also has to be less than any of us because it’s distributed across everybody. The Agency is the interconnectedness of humanity, through tech and biology and culture and all the ooky hivemind stuff we’ve been accelerating towards since the Internet was born. It’s like an overintelligence, a meta-thingie.’

She laughs. ‘A meta-thingie, got it. Important to know the technical terms.’

But I’m not laughing.

‘The thing is, the Agency is very young. It’s only just forming, and it’s aware of us but until now we haven’t been aware of it. I think it behaves on instinct, and it’s been using people to protect itself.’

‘Well,’ Meera says, slowly, ‘if the sleepwalking deaths are deliberate, if the Agency really is targeting people somehow, then we will have to disable it one way or another.’

‘If by “disable it” you mean you want to kill me and people like me—’

‘That’s not what I said! But Charlie, if what you say is true, then how can you ever know if you are acting under your own volition or not?’

‘I can’t. I don’t even know what I am any more, much less why I do what I do. But nor does anyone. Stand here with me and look. I see all the people in black and white. Do you see that?’

‘Yeah, I see them.’