“You have some importance within your own specialist department, Quietus, and within the Special Circumstances section of Contact. You are known. You are, within certain elites, famous. If you talk, people will listen.” “Only if I remember. You said I might not remember all this.” “I think you will. In fact, I may never have been able to stop you from remembering, or at least from passing on what you have learned. Hmm. That’s irksome.” “Please explain?” “The distributed device within your brain and central nervous system, which I have, annoyingly, only recently become aware of, will have recorded its own memories of this encounter and would be able to transmit them to your own biological brain. I strongly suspect it has already transmitted our conversation so far… else where. Perhaps to the drone you arrived with and the ship you arrived on. That is very unusual. Unique, even. Also, most irritating.” “What are you talking about? Do you mean a neural lace?” “Within a sufficiently wide definition, yes. It is certainly some thing similar.” “Well, you’re wrong. I don’t have a neural lace.” “I think you do.” “And I know I don’t.” “I beg to differ, as those who are right have always begged to differ from those who are wrong but refuse to admit it.” “Look, I would know if…” She heard her voice trail off, her jaw going slack as the relevant string relaxed, leaving her speechless.” From “Surface Detail” by Iain M Banks. Published by Orbit in 2010.

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