The writer gives life to a story, the reader keeps it alive.
Katherine has spent the past few weeks under Ajeeta Kothari’s strict rehabilitation programme, and her recovery has accelerated. She has been waiting to undergo an operation to restore her eyesight. There is a day to go, and she is getting impatient. (This issue is dedicated to Margot Kidder, one of my childhood heroes. You always were and will ever be the best, the funniest, gutsiest, most unpredictably brilliant and warmest, Lois Lane.)
Filius Anderson and Helga Ritter are conducting a social experiment into Juba Apfvarzian’s reaction to being observed.
Juba Apfvarzian moves around Mogadishu, to escape from some very suspicious people, who seem to be observing him from a distance. He has spent a few good months at peace, without feeling followed, has even met a girl, called Lucy, and they are living together. He performs street magic to make money. They’re happy, and everything is going well with his life, until he gets that feeling of being watched again.
Alexand’s condition is rapidly deteriorating. The nature of her illness is cyclical, and degenerative, and her doctor has given her the maximum dose of Katherine’s inhibitor, to try to stabilise her.
Katherine returned to her apartment to attempt to digest all the events of the past few hours on board the Kyuunansen. She is alone, with her cat, getting acquainted with him, contemplating her future on the ship, and the prospect of a drug, which reverses the ageing process.
