Her throat was a little sore, she realised, from having to keep her voice raised for so long. She cleared it, said, “I remember that you told me you forgot nothing, remembered everything, had it all stored within you, sometimes multiply, in exhaustive, awful, boring, terrible detail. Detail ghastly for its sheer everlasting banality.” She paused to give him time to speak, but still he didn’t. “It would be good to know what you know about all this, Ngaroe. You always seemed to feel something for the Gzilt. It might help them to know whether this is the truth at last, or another lie.” She paused again, but still he kept silent. “Even if we find out something that it might be best for them not to know, at least we’ll know. At least we’ll have the choice.”

“But who would we be to make that choice?”

“Their friends.”

“Really?”

“The Culture has no selfish interests in this, Ngaroe,” she said, trying not to sigh, though doubting that he’d hear her if she did. She could sense that they were already starting to gravitate back to some of the arguments they’d had centuries ago. They had ended inconclusively then – unless you counted mutual annoyance as a conclusion – and she thought it highly unlikely they’d end up any different this time.

He looked unconvinced, eyebrows rising again. “The Culture has an interest in everything it touches,” he said. “I thought we’d agreed that at least.”

“Maybe so, but no selfish interest. We just want to do the right thing by people we’ve historically felt close to.”

“Ah. That old excuse.”

“Will you stop that?” She could feel herself starting to get angry with him again, and that was not going to help. “It’s not an excuse. It’s just the truth.”

“One person’s truth,” he began.

“Oh, fuck,” she said, looking away and crossing her arms. “Here we go …” She looked back when she realised he was laughing. “What?” she demanded.

“I can’t help you, Tefwe,” he told her. He was looking down now.

“What? Why not?”

“I just can’t.” He reached down by the side of the chair, felt for and found the cord there, and started pulling it. She could hear the matting that had rolled down over the cell’s open window earlier as it was pulled back up again. The Sound pulsed back into the room, filling it like an avalanche bursting into a cabin an instant before it was swept away entirely.