Summary

After his encounter with Val Peters, Ludo attempts to study aerodynamics but finds that his father’s words continually reverberate in his mind. He wonders “what it [was] going to be like hearing it for 80 years” (287). Ludo and Sibylla discuss Peters as they watch Seven Samurai. Sibylla then begins to tell Ludo about Hugh Carey and Raymond Decker.

Carey and Decker meet as classics students at Oxford; Carey is only 15 years old. As Decker worries about an upcoming exam, Carey encourages him to play chess. They play rapid, timed games. Decker begins to beat Carey, and Carey tells him to approach the exam in terms of “opening, middle game, endgame…” (295). The young men become “friends & rivals” (296). Carey finds any academic competition without Decker to be meaningless. As Decker moves away from academia, Carey learns about a “strange silent tribe” (301) in Central...