Your Soulkeeper will be like your citadel, Quilan your own brain is the curtain wall. “It can, but it would require a deeper and more detailed reading than that required for a biological brain. “And it cannot be read by a Culture scan?” “And the personality, the co-pilot, will it know everything from the start?”. “So the deeper I go into my mission the more I’ll know about it?”. We are very confident that we know what we are doing, Major.” The experiments I mentioned were carried out on others. “Estodien, has any sort of experiment been carried out on me yet? I mean, have I already lost any memories, whether I agreed to such a thing or not?”. If that should happen, Major, your mission will end early. To go any deeper, to discover the memories we will initially hide even from you, this scanning process will have to reveal itself you will be aware that it is taking place, or at the very least you will know that it has taken place. “We believe, and have verified through experiments, that such a scanning process could be carried out without your knowledge. If we are able to arrange that you are taken to Masaq’ on such a vessel, and it does look inside your head, all it will find, even at quite a deep level, is your innocent covering story. We imagine that if they do read minds, the most likely time this will happen will be when the subject concerned boards one of their ships, especially one of their warships. “We believe that this is probably true, but your mission is of sufficient importance for us to take precautions in case it is not. We are told that they never read people’s minds, that the inside of your head is the one place they regard as sacrosanct. The reason we are doing this is specifically because the mission involves the Culture. “It can, though the experience may be a little disorienting, and that is the most important reason for giving you your co-pilot. “Can memory be drip-fed so accurately, Estodien?”. By the time you recall this conversation-at the end of which you will know what your mission really is, though not yet exactly how you will accomplish it-you should be quite close, though not in exactly the correct position.” Your memory of this time-probably from some time just after the war to the end of your training here-will only gradually come back to you as you near the completion of your mission. But those orders will be locked inside your own mind. “So am I to be given something like sealed orders, Estodien?”.

Banks look to windward