Recursion

“How dare you! How dare you be angry with me? Didn’t you just say that I didn’t have to ask permission? Aren’t I supposed to ride roughshod over everyone’s wishes in order to do what is best for them?”

The force of the Watcher’s outburst took Eva aback. She was lost for words.

Nicolas didn’t seem concerned. Instead he was becoming impatient. “That’s all very well. What about me? What am I supposed to do now?”

The Watcher relaxed. He smiled. He seemed to find Nicolas amusing.

“You, Nicolas? You go on being yourself.”

“And what do I get out of all this? She got her brother back.”

“You get what you’ve always wanted, Nicolas.”

After that the Watcher said nothing else, he just continued to smile. He was laughing at Nicolas, Eva was certain.

“And Katie?” Nicolas asked. “What about her?”

Eva had almost forgotten Katie. She glanced to her left, to see Katie gazing up at the screen with that little smile on her face, and suddenly she knew the answer. She should have guessed it earlier, but now she could feel that she was right. For the briefest moment she was perfectly in tune with Katie’s feelings and the shock was so intense and warm that she rocked dizzily in her seat. Her brother had felt it, too, that feeling that had the taste of MTPH running right the way through it…

– Later, said her brother.-Think of Katie.

Eva did. Katie loved the Watcher.

It made perfect sense. The Watcher got a chance to study one of the most important human emotions at close hand. The fact that he also had access to the resources of one of the world’s richest women was no doubt more than a happy coincidence. And as for Katie, she had found her equal, or maybe the closest thing to it. Someone to talk to, someone who could understand her. What was more, her new partner was safe. He could never step beyond his screen.

It was perfect. And it was real, Eva was convinced. She had felt the affection that radiated from Katie like the energy from a small star.

They stepped from the building into a cool night. Dark blue ink seeped away around the horizon, leaving only the bright stars in the blackness above. Maybe something like the Watcher looked down at them from one of those stars.

Maybe not.

Katie stood by the doorway, her arms folded. Eva and Nicolas walked across the enclosure. The digger had gone. So had Alison’s body. In its place stood a dark green Land Rover, its doors painted with little yellow trees. A forest worker’s vehicle, it stood on chunky black tires that barely seemed to touch the dark gravel.

“So this is it,” said Eva.

“Good-bye,” said Katie. “I’m sure we’ll meet up again sometime.”

“I’m sure we will,” said Eva.

“Good-bye, Nicolas,” said Katie. Nicolas appeared very distracted; he jumped as Katie spoke to him.

He turned in her direction and gave a nervous grin. “Bye,” he muttered, then turned and continued to scan his surroundings nervously.

“What’s the matter, Nicolas?” Eva asked, puzzled.

“Nothing,” said Nicolas. There was the sound of a door slamming, and he jumped again. A young woman dressed in grey dungarees came out of one of the broken-down buildings. She was carrying an old power saw.

“Nearly there, Nicolas,” she called. “I think this could be nursed back to life with a bit of oil and some TLC. The rest of the stuff in there is for the dump.”

Eva looked at Nicolas, amazed. He was blushing.

“Erm, this is Debbie. I met her down in the valley. She offered me a lift into town. She said that she just had to come up here first, to sort out some old tools.”

“Oh,” said Eva. “Then she locked you in a shed?”

Nicolas studied his feet. “I don’t know. I think that was the Watcher. I don’t think she would ever do that to me. What do you think?”

“I think you should go and give her a hand with that power saw, Nicolas,” said Eva.

– And for heaven’s sake, don’t stare at her tits when you do it, said her brother. It was probably just as well Nicolas couldn’t hear that last bit.

Eva and Katie exchanged glances for the last time.

“Bye,” said Eva, hugging Katie.

“For the moment.”

“I can’t believe you’re staying here with…him!” Eva nodded back toward the building.

Katie gave a patronizing smile. Eva had seen it before with couples.

“You’re bound to think that, Eva. That’s why he picked you. But trust me. The Watcher is good. He’s on our side.”

Debbie drove Eva down to the nearby town. Nicolas held the door open for her as she got out of the van.

“See you around, Eva?” he said.

“See you around, Nicolas.” Eva hugged him. He looked at her with a hopeful expression, and Eva leaned close to his ear.

“She’s lovely,” she whispered.

Nicolas’ face lit up with delight. He climbed back into the van and waved to her as Debbie gunned the motor.

Eva waved to them as the van drove around the corner. It was incredible, she thought. Debbie seemed so normal, and yet she really did seem to like Nicolas. Eva wouldn’t have believed that Nicolas was ready for a relationship. Did the Watcher really have that much insight about humans? Was it possible to find someone whose personality had just the right facets and features to mesh with someone else’s and thus to effect a healing process?

The idea was laughable: the idea that the Watcher was sent between the stars to act as an extraterrestrial dating agency.

It was getting cold. Eva reached in her pocket, pulled out her phone and turned it on. The screen flashed once, then again. A message was waiting for her.

Hello Eva, she read. The “Eva” flashed twice and then was replaced by something else. Now the screen read, Hello“?”

She got the message. The Watcher was offering her a new life. Who did she want to be?

She gazed up and down the empty street of the little Welsh town. Light streamed from the windows of a fast-food shop further up the road. The other shops were all closed for the night. It was incredible. In the last few weeks she had come from the crowded city to this. On the edge of a new life.

If the Watcher was to be believed, she was at the edge of a new era. An era of self-replicating machines, perfect romances, and who knew what else? A time of optimism. That would make a change. For too long the world had just looked around at itself and seen the downward slope to disaster.

Or was she just fooling herself? Believing what she wanted to believe? Justifying the fact that she had left Katie back there with the Watcher.

“What do you think?” she asked her brother.

– I think we’ve been tricked. We all got what we wanted. Katie got an equal; you’re free of South Street. Even Nicolas got a girl.

“Hmm, I know. But it was our choice, I suppose. Look how the Watcher lost his temper when I didn’t realize that.”

– Of course he didn’t lose his temper. That body, those expressions, they were all an assumed look. He’s- it’s still playing with us, making us think what it wants, even at the end. That’s why it had you there, I bet. If it can convince you to hand over power, it can convince anyone. We all got what we wanted.