7

‘Have you lost your mind?’ Ramiro had come to the interview with high hopes, but within a few lapses his mood had been transformed from anticipation to bemusement to horror. ‘That’s the most deranged thing you’ve ever asked me to do – which is not an easy contest to win.’

Greta motioned with her hand on her tympanum, imploring him to keep his voice down.

Ramiro said, ‘If you’re going to keep raising this subject with people, you might want to think about soundproofing your office.’

He began drawing himself out of the harness facing her desk. ‘Where are you going?’ Greta asked anxiously.

‘Relax,’ he said. ‘I’m not going to tell anyone. Though next time you ask me to keep something between us, I’ll take that as a sign that I should turn and run. And when you put this to a referendum, I promise you I’ll be campaigning very noisily—’ Ramiro caught a flicker of discomfort on her face. ‘There is going to be a vote, before you actually build this?’

‘That’s up to the Council,’ Greta replied. ‘But there’s not much point voting on a system whose feasibility is entirely hypothetical.’

Ramiro slipped back into the harness. ‘So you were thinking of building it first? And then what? Hope you can learn something in advance that will guarantee the outcome of the vote? But how would that work? What if the message from next year’s Council is simply that whatever they tried, failed?’

Greta said stiffly, ‘It’s not about vote rigging. It’s about security. You of all people should appreciate that.’

‘Me of all people?’ Ramiro stared back at her in disgust. ‘If we’re being frank, I blame you for the farce with the gnat just as much as I blame the migrationists.’ As the words emerged he wondered if he was letting his anger get the better of him. But Greta showed no sign that she was wounded, let alone contrite.

‘I don’t understand why you’re so vehemently against this,’ she said. ‘You should take a few days to think it over.’

Ramiro buzzed. ‘What’s funny is that you’ve been planning this for a year – but you still can’t see that your last remark should answer the preceding question.’

Greta spent a pause or two struggling to parse that, but it seemed to be beyond her. Ramiro said, ‘You’re inviting me to take my time to ponder all the pros and cons before reaching a decision – but the answer you want from me would eradicate my ability ever to go through the same process again.’

‘That’s nonsense,’ Greta said amiably. ‘No one’s asking you to surrender your free will.’

‘And that’s not how I’d put it, myself,’ Ramiro replied. ‘But I’m not going to start debating terminology. The simple fact is that anyone who knows their own actions in advance will be living a different kind of life than someone who doesn’t.’

‘What makes you think that you’d be forced to know anything about your own actions? The Council will use this facility for planning and security purposes. Any other applications will be carefully controlled – and exposure to information is hardly going to be compulsory.’