‘You kindly got most of it down the toilet. Come any time.’
‘I need to drink a swimming pool.’
I fill a beer mug with tap water. Suga downs it in a marathon gulp. ‘Thanks. Any chance of a coffee?’ I give Suga mine and start another pan of water boiling. Suga bunches the futon into a log, sits at the table, drinks his coffee, goes ‘aaaaaah’, and rolls down his shirtsleeves to hide his eczema. ‘I never knew you played the guitar. Is that kid on the swing your little sister?’ Near enough. ‘Yes.’ I tip the eggs on to the toast, clear junk and sit down to eat. ‘Then the man in the funny sunglasses is your father?’ My yolk bleeds yellow. ‘Not quite. John Lennon.’ Suga plies his temples with his thumbs. ‘I heard of him. In the Beach Boys, right? So where am I exactly?’
‘Above a video shop in Kita Senju.’
‘When did I get here?’
‘About eleven last night.’
‘You live above your workplace? The commuting must be a bitch.’
‘Be grateful I had somewhere near by to drag your carcass, otherwise a dog would be pissing on you in the gutter right now. How did you get here last night? Did you get a taxi from the station? You were in no condition to walk far.’
Suga shakes his head blankly. ‘I really can’t remember.’
The eggs are good. ‘And why did you come to visit me?’
Suga shrugs. ‘Miyake, when I was blotto last night . . . I don’t suppose I blabbed any stupid stories or anything? I spout utter drivel when I drink. If I said anything, there wasn’t, y’know, a word of truth in it. Pure bull. Everything I said. Or may have said.’
‘Fair enough.’
‘But I didn’t actually say any, y’know, crazy stuff, did I?’
‘No, Suga. Nothing.’
Suga nods confidently. ‘Yeah, I thought as much. Me and alcohol. Pfff.’ In strolls Cat and immediately recognizes Suga as a soft touch. ‘Hello, beautiful!’ Suga pets Cat while Cat susses out the food situation. ‘What are you doing shacking up with this dubious character, then?’
‘Your gratitude overwhelms me.’
‘Why did you leave Ueno only two weeks after a life sentence?’
‘Family stuff. So, do you have, uh, seminars today?’
Suga shrugs. ‘What day are we on?’
‘Thursday.’
‘I don’t know where I’ll go today.’
‘Not questing for Holy Grail?’
‘Pointless.’ Suga takes off his glasses and pinches the bridge of his nose. The gesture makes him look sixty-something. ‘Deep time-waste. I quit hacking.’
‘Am I hearing this right?’
‘I back-doored the Pentagon two weeks ago. Guess what?’
‘No Holy Grail?’
Suga combs his hair with his fingers. ‘Nine billion Holy Grails. I looked inside one. I found another nine billion Holy Grails. And in each of them?’
‘Nine billion Holy Grails?’ I have to get ready for work.
Suga sighs. ‘The whole thing was just some government nerd practical joke. Every hour I spent hacking – and it adds up to months – I could have spent more profitably with my finger up my fat one. Even looking at a computer makes me ill.’
‘So what do you do at university?’
‘I don’t. I walk. Sleep.’
‘Why not just find another site to hack?’ I fetch a clean T-shirt from my curtain rail. It is dry but crumpled, so I plug in my iron.
‘For hackers,’ Suga sighs, ‘well, for the best ones, Holy Grail is the ultimate meaning of hacking, right. Non-hackers couldn’t understand this. Imagine if you suddenly discovered, say, that your father isn’t who you thought he was. I don’t even have the heart to post the news. They would never believe me, anyway. They’d think I’d gone over to the other side.’
I add my plate to my sink collection and try to find two socks that match, sort of. ‘Nine billion Holy Grails filled with nine billion Holy Grails.’ I flick out the legs of my ironing board and set it upright. ‘What a great hiding place for a Holy Grail.’ It was an off-the-cuff comment, and Suga opens his mouth to answer, but changes his mind. He strokes Cat, who cruises at ninety purrs per minute. My iron breathes steam. Suga opens his mouth. ‘No,’ he says. ‘I checked hundreds of sample Grail files, from all over the document field. Holy Grail is just an exercise in infinity. In meaninglessness.’
13th November
Weather unknown at present. We are silent-running. Ten minutes ago the lookout sounded the alarm – a squadron of Lightnings heading straight this way. Rehearsed pandemonium ensued as the crew prepared the I-333 for