‘Vegetables don’t spring to mind when I look at you. Asparagus, perhaps.’
‘Finn, I really have to say, that’s going to get you nowhere.’ She hurried to the edge of the pool, straightened and sent a great spray of water in Nair’s direction. ‘Hey! What are you talking about?’
‘The beauty of the Earth,’ smiled Sushma Nair. ‘And a bit about the beauty of women.’
‘Same thing,’ said Heidrun. ‘The Earth is female.’
Eva tied the belt of her kimono. ‘You see beauty out there?’
‘Of course.’ Nair nodded enthusiastically. ‘Beauty and simplicity.’
‘Shall I tell you what I see?’ Eva Borelius said after thinking for a moment. ‘A misunderstanding.’
‘How so?’
‘Complete disproportion. The Earth out there has nothing to do with our familiar perception of it.’
‘That’s true,’ said Heidrun. ‘For example, Switzerland normally seems the size of Africa to a Swiss person. On the other hand, in the emotional reality of a Swiss person, Africa shrinks to a hot, damp island full of poor people, mosquitoes, snakes and diseases.’
‘That’s exactly what I’m talking about.’ Eva nodded. ‘I see a beautiful planet, but not one that we share. A world which, in terms of what some have and others don’t, should look completely different.’
‘Bravo.’ Finn O’Keefe bobbed over and applauded.
‘Enough, Finn,’ hissed Heidrun. ‘Do you even know what we’re talking about?’
‘Of course,’ he yawned. ‘About how Eva Borelius had to fly to the Moon to discover the bleedin’ obvious.’
‘No.’ Eva laughed drily and started picking up her swimming things. ‘I’ve always known what the planet looks like, Finn, but it’s still different seeing it like this. It reminds me who we’re actually researching for.’
‘You’re researching for the guy who’s paying you. Have you only just realised?’
‘That free research is going down the toilet? No.’
‘Not that you personally have any reason to complain,’ Karla joined in maliciously.
‘Hey, hang on.’ Eva, caught in a pincer movement, raised her eyebrows. ‘Am I complaining?’
Karla looked innocently back. ‘I just wanted to say.’
‘Of course, stem cell research brings in money, so she gets some too. It cost a lot of money to take the isolation and investigation of adult cells and develop it into the production of artificial tissue. Now we’ve decoded the protein blueprints of our body cells, we work successfully with molecular prosthetics, we have replacements for destroyed nerves and burnt skin, we can produce new cardiac muscle cells, we can cure cancer, because not even the wealthiest people in the world are spared heart attacks, cancer and burn injuries.’ She paused. ‘But they are spared malaria. And cholera. Those are diseases for poor people. If we were to apportion budgets purely on the quantitative occurrence of such diseases, the greatest amount of research money would flow to the Third World. Instead, the majority of all malaria patents, even the most promising, are put on ice, because you can’t earn any money with them.’
Nair went on looking at the far-away Earth, still smiling, but more thoughtfully.
‘I come from an unimaginably big country,’ he said. ‘And at the same time from a graspable cosmos. I’ve never had the impression that there’s just one world, not least because we see it from all perspectives at the same time. No one sees it as a whole, no one sees the whole truth. But if we see the world as a multiplicity of small, interlocking worlds, each determined by its own rules, you can try to improve some of them. And that helps you to understand the whole. If my job had been to improve the world, I would definitely have failed.’
‘So what have you improved?’ asked Karla.
‘A few of those little worlds.’ He beamed at them. ‘At least I hope so.’
‘You’ve carpeted India with air-conditioned shopping centres, connected whole villages to the internet, provided God knows how many thousands of Indian farmers with a basic living. But haven’t you also opened the door to multinational companies, by offering them the chance to get involved?’
‘Of course.’
‘And haven’t some of them gratefully taken up your model, rented Indian land and replaced the farmers with machines and cheap labourers?’
Nair’s smile froze on his face. ‘Any idea can be corrupted.’
‘I’d just like to understand.’
‘Certainly, such things happen. We can’t allow that.’
‘Look, I don’t entirely agree with your romanticisation of inequality. Small, autonomous worlds. You do a lot of good things, Mukesh, but you’re globalisation personified. Which I think is fine, as long as the tiny little worlds aren’t swallowed up by the big companies—’
‘Shouldn’t we be getting back to our rooms?’ said Eva.
‘Yes, of course.’ Karla shrugged. ‘Let’s go. Typical of you, always going on about how annoyed you are, and then getting all ashamed when I mention some concrete examples.’
‘Where have the others got to, by the way?’ Sushma shook her head uneasily. ‘They should have been back ages ago.’
‘When we came down here they were still on their way.’
‘And they still are, by the look of it,’ said Nair. Then he rested a friendly hand on Karla’s shoulder. ‘And you’re completely right, Karla. We should talk about this kind of thing more often. And not spare each other’s feelings.’
‘Shall I tell you how I see it?’ asked Finn.
They all looked at him.
‘I see two dozen of the richest people on this much-discussed planet Earth feeling trapped between malaria and champagne and, in line with the disproportion that you mentioned, Eva, escaping to the Moon, where they reach remarkable insights in the most expensive hotel in the solar system. You know what? I’m going for another couple of lengths.’
Sophie had installed Tim’s program and asked him casually whether it hadn’t occurred to him that she might be the traitor. He had looked baffled for a moment, before exploding with laughter.
‘Is it that obvious?’
‘You bet.’
‘Well—’
‘I’m not,’ she said. ‘Happy now?’
He laughed again. ‘If people got out of jail by saying that, we could convert our prisons into hen houses.’
‘You’re a teacher, right?’
‘Yes.’
‘How many times do you hear that every day?’
‘What? “It’s not me, it wasn’t me”?’ He shrugged. ‘No idea. I usually lose track at about midday. But okay, it wasn’t you. Do you suspect anybody?’
She lowered her head over the keyboard, so that her blonde curls hid her facial expression.
‘Not directly.’
‘You’re thinking about my sister, aren’t you?’ He sighed. ‘Come on, Sophie, it’s not a problem, I’m not cross with you. You’re not the only person who feels that way. Dana has completely homed in on Lynn.’
‘I know.’ Sophie looked up. ‘But I don’t believe for a second that your sister has anything to do with it. Lynn built this hotel. It would be completely idiotic. And what’s more, it’s only just now occurred to me, but when she refused to let your father see the corridor video – why would she have done that? I mean, why, if she had actually recut it herself? In her place I’d have proudly rubbed his nose in it.’
Tim looked grateful and curiously glum at the same time. It was immediately clear to her that he was more inclined towards Dana’s opinion than her own, and that he was bothered by the fact.
‘Quite honestly,’ she smiled shyly, ‘I was wondering before whether you yourself mightn’t—’