‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Yes.’

10

Sir Prestwick Wining was not good on the telephone. It was an instrument which had made a fool of better men than him. How could one possibly tell if the voice at the other end was who it said it was, or meant what it said it meant, or was what it seemed, or seemed what it was?

‘Nunn? Hallo, Nunn?’ he demanded anxiously. He was anxious lest Nunn was absent, or dead, and he had only been put through to him as some sort of practical joke.

‘Nunn? Are you there, Nunn?’ he said fiercely. The panic rose within him. Was Nunn at the other end of the line or was he not? Perhaps he was dead. He could imagine bevy upon bevy of telephone girls listening in at every junction of the line and giggling helplessly because they had made him shout at Nunn when Nunn was dead, lying in state on top of his desk.

‘Nunn!’ he cried unhappily. ‘Nunn!’

‘Morning, Sir Prestwick,’ said Nunn, who had been obliged to finish dealing with a rather tricky leg-spinner from the hatstand end.

‘Is that you, Nunn?’

‘Speaking, Sir Prestwick.’

‘Ah. I was trying to get you, Nunn. Now, Nunn . . . Hallo? Nunn? Nunn? Nunn, are you there or aren’t you?’

Nunn was watching the leg-spinner, which he had hooked away through the mid-carpet, and which had now just evaded square leg by the waste-paper basket and gone for four, to warmly appreciative applause, by the radiator.

‘Sorry, Sir Prestwick. Rather a lot going on at this end. Fire away.’

‘I see. Now, Nunn . . .’

‘Did you see the show-jumping your competitors were televising last night?’

‘No. Now, Nunn . . .’

‘Some very pretty jumping. Sorry, I interrupted you.’

‘Yes, well . . .’

‘Mind was wandering. Sign of old age.’

‘Ah. Now a most . . .’

‘Unforgivable rudeness. I hate being interrupted myself.’

‘Nunn, a most serious contingency has arisen.’

‘Aha.’

‘Your plans for the new wing. I’m afraid Rothermere won’t wear them.’

‘Oh?’

‘Rothermere’s clear understanding – and I have a letter before me from your Miss Fram to this effect – was that the wing would be used, and I quote, “to extend the work of the Ethics Department in investigating to what extent computers can be programmed to follow codes of ethical behavior.” ’

‘That’s right.’

‘Well, we offered our support for this work, Nunn, in the belief that it was helping to combat teenage delinquency and immorality. That is what the word ‘ethics’ suggests to us.’

‘That’s what it suggests to me too, Sir Prestwick.’

‘Well, Rothermere fails to understand – and I fail to understand – how this could justify using the wing to get computers writing pornographic novels and sex manuals.’

‘Pornographic novels and sex manuals?’

‘Exactly.’

‘We’re going to have computers writing them, are we?’

‘So I’m told.’

‘In the new wing?’

‘Apparently. Rothermere heard about it from some girl he met at a party.’