Chapter 122

While Yor heads out to a dinner where Sharon, Camilla, and Millie plan to apologize for their cheating accusation, Anya picks up on Loid's grateful thoughts about the notebook Yor obtained and panics that her mother is winning the Friendship Scheme race. Hearing in his mind that Sigmund Authen once knew Donovan Desmond shocks her further, and she hands her father a ready-made excuse to visit the elderly couple by declaring she wants Sigmund to tutor her.

At the Authens' house, Anya opens her study session by asking her tutor for a lesson on evil organizations, and follows up by asking whether he ever did wicked things for one. Sigmund answers with surprising candor: if nations at war qualify, he cannot claim his hands are clean. Barbara steps in to explain how his medical and academic research served Ostania through the conflicts with Westalis. When Loid steers the conversation toward the former Prime Minister, Sigmund freely recalls meeting Donovan and discussing soldiers' neuroses and drug development, then shows photographs of his old research group. Beyond that, his memory fails him, and Anya reads that he genuinely recalls almost nothing about Donovan, convincing her he is harmless.

Barbara privately tells Loid that time with Anya briefly lifts the fog of Sigmund's dementia, and that the girl is the closest they come to having a grandchild. Loid leaves nearly persuaded the couple poses no threat, though he warns himself against trusting appearances. The visit ends in comedy when the Authens joke that Loid should greet the returning Yor with a kiss, sending her fleeing in embarrassment. But past midnight, Barbara finds her husband gripped by one of his sinking spells. Alone, Sigmund races to write down the fragments surfacing in his mind before they vanish: a project, a plan, the name Desmond, and the question of whether Anya herself is Test Subject #7.

Anya learns of the connection between Sigmund and Donovan by reading Loid's mind, then engineers a tutoring visit so her father can investigate.

Sigmund confirms he met Donovan during his premiership to discuss treating soldiers' neuroses and developing new medicines, but remembers nothing after Donovan's resignation.

Loid tentatively concludes the Authens are uninvolved. That night, Sigmund frantically records resurfacing memories that mention Desmond, a plan, and a possible Test Subject #7, hinting at Anya's hidden origins.

Sigmund's note wondering whether Anya could be Test Subject #7 is written without any knowledge of her actual past, making it the strongest hint yet that his buried memories connect to the experiments that created her telepathy.

Berlint General Hospital's one-time director, referenced in this chapter, goes unnamed here; Chapter 137 later identifies him as Director Surjay.