Zed by Joanna Kavenna

Author:Joanna Kavenna [Joanna Kavenna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780571321834
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 2019-08-02T16:00:00+00:00

Later, Varley waited in the Boardroom for Guy, who was stuck in traffic.

‘We’re in China,’ said Sarah Coates.

When Guy finally arrived, he said: ‘How have you been, Varley?’

‘Not too bad!’ said the Real Douglas Varley, who was always happy.

‘How was the court?’

‘Ted Henderson said it went like a dream.’

‘What kind of dream?’

‘It began like a bad dream but later it became more like a good dream, definitely. I think he meant a good dream. How is your trip?’

‘OK. In general it’s about a 3.7 star rating. Some days are more like 4.4 or 4.5 but then others go down to 2.8 so I’d say the aggregate is mid- to high 3s.’

‘Is this Guy?’

Varley wondered, for a moment, if it was actually Sarah Coates.

‘This is the real Guy Matthias, the Real Douglas Varley,’ said Guy.

‘Are you in Bespoke?’

‘Deity! I sure am! Why aren’t you?’

‘I haven’t yet – quite – got the hang of it.’

‘That’s not good! Deity! But I have a new project. Now you’re less busy with the legal stuff I want to speak with you about it.’

Guy asked Sarah Coates to explain about ClickSpire, which she did, in a rambling way which didn’t really explain anything at all. However, the Real Douglas Varley said: ‘This sounds incredible! Thank you so much for sharing this with me!’

Varley felt his avatar was becoming slightly painful and resolved to get it under control. Guy’s avatar, which was ten years younger than the real Guy and archetypally handsome in a way Guy had never quite been, said, ‘Great. Refer to Sarah Coates for the information. At least, actually, well, yes, refer to Sarah Coates, though, to be honest, she needs reconfiguring.’

‘I’m sorry to hear that,’ said the Real Douglas Varley and Sarah Coates, at the same time.

‘In fact, can you reconfigure her, after you’ve referred to her? Or before, even? I have to go.’

Varley went away, relieved that he was no longer in disgrace. And yet, he was worried that soon he would be in disgrace again. Disgrace seemed virtually inescapable. If not disgrace now then soon. The star rating for his current state of life was about 2.8. This was better than he had expected this morning. But it was still not particularly great. It was not even in the mid-3s.

Yet, even this star rating was higher than Guy’s state of life over the next few hours. He was afflicted by Zed events. Song Meredith cried off at the last minute, because she had food poisoning, she argued. This had not featured as a possibility on any of the lifechains, even factoring in Song Meredith’s recent dining activities and food purchases, as well as any of her other purchases ever, in her entire life, as well as any other purchases by any member of her family or immediate group of friends, as well as any purchases by any human living in the present or recent past, or indeed since the lifechain began. The possibility of Song Meredith lying to Guy and pretending she had food poisoning had also not been presented either.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.