Part 1 in Interzone 20: Marye is an actress living in London in the near future, after viruses have wiped out cancer, and reduced everyone's life expectancy to 30. They have also have been used to spread approved 'good' thoughts to the populace, by a Marxist government. People have their personalities 'read' by viruses and incorporated in the govening Consensus. Marye though is unhappy, possibly as a result of an immunity to the viruses. This immunity also allows her to fall in love with Rolfa, a female Woolie, gene-engineered for Polar environments, who wants to write music.

Part 2 in Interzone 21: After avoiding a 'Snide', a state-spy, by assuming a virus personality, that of a Das Kapital-quoting citizen called Hazel, things start to go Marye's way. Rolfa flees her family, shaves off all her body hair to blend in, and moves in with Marye. The ending is weak as everything seems to end on a high note for no good reason. The 'system' just collapses. ( )