“I mean that if you invent artificial intelligences, and hand over to them many of the things we used to do ourselves, you also invent a group of people whose lives are dedicated to hacking into those new minds and bending them to their will. People, for example, like yourself.”

“You must know something about me that I don’t.”

“I find that hard to believe. Most people know a lot about themselves. More than anyone outside their skulls could know. In fact, that’s why you are here. I’d like to know a bit more about you. What do you know, for example, about the Stork Society? Let’s start there.”

“I don’t know anything.”

“Let’s not begin with useless denials. We didn’t give you that black eye, or that bloody nose, after all. The people who did are no friends of yours. This morning they tried to kill you with an autotaxi. They tried to murder you with one of your own tricks. But you saw it coming. You knew they were after you.”

“I deny this. I have never—”

“Don’t bother with the denials. They only make this take longer. You should just tell me what you know.”

“And then?”

“And then, if we feel like you’ve made it all worth it, we give you this.” He reached into the pocket of his field jacket and placed a passport on the table—oxblood and gold. “And a hop in a hexcopter to an abandoned train station on the outskirts of London. It might not save you—but it will buy you a bit more time. Do you think they will stop looking for you?”

The young man shook his head.

“No. I don’t think so, either. But at least you might live for a few more months. Or—who knows? Something could happen to them in the meantime. Funny about passports.”

“What is?”

“They still have all this paper, but in fact all the information is in a single microchip—and scattered through the computer systems of the world. The pages, the visas—meaningless. Nothing but nostalgia. But we cling to the old forms.”

“It’s about an island.”

“Say that again?”

“It’s about an island. Off the coast of the HCMATZ. A marine preserve. There’s a mind on that island they wanted me to help them break into. But I tried for months, and I couldn’t get anywhere.”

“They wanted you to use this mind to conduct an assassination?”

“I don’t know.”

“They didn’t tell you?”