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Provisional potential threat coefficient (PTC) of 7, which matches the PTCs of persons with DCIV, observed over a period of more than five reproductions…”’ He broke off. Something in my expression probably confused him. ‘If you don’t understand something, ask. You’re only nine, but this is a grown-up conversation.’
    ‘How did it happen?’ I asked.
    ‘How did they calculate the coefficient? It’s simple. They take…’
    ‘No. How did it happen, the… pause? You’re a planetman: you must know?’
    ‘Of course I know. And you know too: it doesn’t hurt.’
    I wanted to scratch his mirrored mask with something sharp. So that there would be a screech: metal on glass. And blood would come out of the slash.
    He stood up and took a couple of steps back, as if he’d guessed what I was thinking.
    He buzzed:
    ‘I would like to hear questions that are relevant. Relevant to our conversation.’
    I suddenly got bored.
    ‘No questions. I understand.’
    ‘What do you understand?’
    ‘They think I’m a criminal.’
    ‘No. Absolutely not!’ Judging by his gestures, he was talking very animatedly, however, the buzzing remained just as sleepy. ‘Having a destructively criminal incode vector is not a crime. People with DCIV are not criminals. That’s very important. What’s also important is that some of those people with DCIV – most of them – would immediately become criminals if the Living did not look after itself. It is thanks to this constant care that you’re being sent to a House of Correction for people with DCIV.’
    I get a ticklish feeling in my stomach, as if someone is stroking me on the inside with a cold little paw.
    ‘Is it forever?’ I ask, but it sounds more like a confirmation. The paw starts wriggling again.
    ‘…I’ve been sentenced to life imprisonment?’
    ‘Three mistakes straight off in such a short question. For one, DCIV is not a sentence. It’s more like a diagnosis. A warning sign. You can work on it, it can be fixed. That’s why it’s called a House of Correction. No one’s being punished there, there are no prisoners, there are correctees. They are provisionally innocent and working on staying that way in the future. And finally, imprisonment for life… That’s just a joke! What can be for life in your eternal life? I hope that everything’ll be sorted after the first pause.’
    The first… I suddenly wanted to bite him. Hard, so I could hear the crunch of his shattered bone.
    ‘You think I don’t know that my first pause is probably going to be my last? Why are you lying? Don’t you know who I am?’ I almost shouted. I think I stamped my foot.
    ‘No one knows who you are,’ he buzzed calmly. ‘I don’t know either. But I do know something else. If you don’t want your first pause to be your last, if you want to stay with the Living, then your anger is unacceptable. The Living is fullof love, and every part of him loves every other part equally… You have fifteen minutes to gather your things. You will be picked up. I’ll come and visit you every week. There is no death.’

The Man with No Face
    ef:
no death
cleo:
glap you’re here! why didn’t you reply i was worried
ef:
sorry
cleo:
ok you coming in?
    open cleo’s cell
    ef:
enter
cleo’s
cell
    cleo:
you like it?
ef:
yeah of course it’s nice here
cleo:
no i mean the dog you remember it was you who sent me the link so i hooked myself up a dog
    cleo has updated her status:
dog-owner
    she’s already learned to get excited when guests come look how happy she is that you’ve come do you like her?
ef:
i don’t know
probably
have you ever seen real dogs?
cleo:
no
oh well fine you don’t like her…
all for nothing
it’s a really interesting program you can train her the dog can learn twenty commands and then if for example you give her a bone then take it away she bites you it’s really funny
want to give her a bone?
ef:
no
    cleo:
fine i’ll do it myself
    command
heel

command
chew bone
    tell