"I'm sorry if I startled you. Do you mind if I sit?"

She knew she should run from him as fast as she could, but fear and surprise paralysed her. Taking her lack of reply as acceptance, he sat.

He stretched his legs out and drew in a deep, audible breath through his large, hooked nose and exhaled just as loudly. "This is a magical place, isn't it? You know, I thought I was the only one in the whole city that knew of it. Tell me, how did you find it?"

"I read about it," answered Saki nervously.

"Yes, of course, you're a reader. The written word can indeed take you places." In an attempt to settle her anxiety, he added, "Please relax. I am here, I am sure, for the same reason as you are. I mean you no harm whatsoever."

Saki nodded and relaxed a little.

The man gestured to the book in her hands. "It looks very old. Is it a genuine book or a facsimile trinket?"

"It's real," she blurted, "I mean it's an authentic paper publication. It's an antique with paper pages printed in ink. You can even feel the marks of the typeface if you rub your fingers on the page." She felt like a loose-lipped fool and so berated herself. Too friendly and too damn keen to talk about my favourite subject.

"Really?" He seemed genuinely interested. "You can feel the ink? Do you mind if I see for myself?"

Oh fuck, way too friendly. Still, she responded politely. "Okay."

She hesitantly passed the dull green-covered book over to the man, who pulled off a black glove so he could experience the book as she had described. Saki shuddered internally at the thought of him laying his clammy fingers upon her precious possession.

He weighed the small book on the palm of his hand and observed, "It is quite light." He opened the cover and clumsily flicked through the pages. He stopped at no particular page and gently ran his finger along its surface so that he could feel the marks left by a printing machine long lost to time.

With a clap he closed the book and flipped it over to its cover to inspect the large golden letters gilded into the fabric-covered board. "So you can read this?" he asked.

Oh-my-god-give-me-back-my-book! She replied nervously, "Yes, that's just the title of the book. It says 'The Love Sonnets of Proteus' and was published in the year 1888 by a writer called Wilfred Blunt." Quickly she added, "This is the fifth edition and the book itself was actually printed in 1888."

"Interesting. So this bit of writing says all of that?" He looked genuinely surprised. "A lot of 8s there. But seriously, that is hundreds of years old, and in such good condition. This book, my friend, is a rare thing and belongs in a museum." His wrinkled face looked up at her with a look that said he knew right.

Her heart began to race as the fear that he was going to confiscate the book and hand it over to a museum seeped in her mind. Saki answered, "Ah, no sorry, the spine just shows the title. I got a bit carried away."

He passed the small book back as she stood. His suggestion that the book didn't belong with her made her feel uncomfortable. Startled by her sudden movement, a duck that had settled close by flew off over the water noisily. She clasped the book defensively, close to her chest. She felt like running away but was annoyed that this man had invaded her experience. Her mouth decided to do the running instead. "In a museum? With all of the other real books where no one can read them?" She shook her head. "No thanks. Give me a real book with real pages and words and a quiet green out in the real world any day." She knew about museums. "Books belong with people, not in dark, dingy rooms on shelves behind a shield where no one can even touch them."

"So you've been to a book museum?"

"Yes. When I was a girl, my uncle took me on one of his business meetings to the City Book Museum. He told me that they used to be called libraries and once, a long time ago, people were allowed take books for reading. In fact, that is what a library was for. It was a place to read."

"You're quite the pax, aren't you?" said the man, seemingly impressed. "I must admit, I know very little about books or the age of reading. Did you say the City Book Museum? I can't recall any such place in this city. And your uncle, can he read too?"

"My uncle is dead, and, yes, he could read. He taught me how and gave me this." She waggled the book gently at him and placed it back in her shoulder bag.

"Well, if you ask me old books are too fragile to handle. I think users would damage them beyond repair if they were allowed general access."

Fragile? What a joke. She explained, "I read my book almost every day and even at its age it's still in good condition. I think they prefer people hooked into the Environment to get their history and that's the real reason we can't take books from the museum."

He nodded with a grin and seemed to agree with her. "Yes, another one for the conspiracy streams, eh?"

"Yeah. It's a conspiracy." The answer came without thought. "Look, I've got to go. It's been good talking with you."

His grin vanished as his expression changed from friendly to stern. "So tell me, young lady. Why a conspiracy?"

The alarm bells rang. Saki knew at that moment that she had made a big mistake. Of course this guy wasn't just some curious stranger who coincidentally happened to be at the same secret place as her. He was an investigator of some kind who had somehow followed her here. He might even be a user fanatic bent on maiming and disfiguring anyone considered to be a troll to the userbase. This was a dangerous place right now.

"Hey, I was just agreeing with you. I like to read my book, is all." Urgh, I'll say anything to get out of here, now.

"Of course you do. Why else would someone be walking around with a book? But it goes back to my original question: Why do you need words? Isn't reading just a waste of time? Doesn't the Environment provide you with everything you could ever need?"

They were the same words that Mont had used. Something was incredibly wrong. Saki turned and ran as fast as she could to the staircase. She hoped that he wouldn't follow. At the foot of the stairs, she turned back and could see him standing at the spot where they had been sitting under the tree. He had stood and was staring at her: a devil in her new-found Eden.

Saki climbed the tunnel and ran home in the wind, holding the book tight in its bag the whole way.