Revenge is a nasty business: Maj saw the sweat burst out on Alain's forehead with great suddenness, and as it did so, his virtual persona fell off, so that he wasn't disguised anymore, but was palpably Alain, palpably out of control, lurching around, his eyes glazing and the pupils looking dilated and fixed, his face suddenly fixed too, in a sort of long unsmiling rictus. He didn't seem to be able to move his head, and it stayed as still as if he was wearing a neck brace, though all the rest of him now seemed to be trying to go in all directions at once.

Alain Thurston had bid fair to be the villain of One Is the Loneliest Number, but his estimation of his own superiority to others is far out of proportion with reality. Roddy may be a fool, but he...