When I got off the transit, I joined a street syndicate and bought a lottery ticket. The Natural lifeform organizing the syndicate assured me that, given this was the last draw of the night, it had a higher proportion of clearances than any other. He didn’t mention that it also had a greater number of entries, which pretty much cancelled this. I decided that when my syndicate had failed, I’d take the hit and run, whatever the consequences. I just needed to shift the decision-making process from my shoulders.
Standing at the rear of the hall, watching the United Platform for Citizen Respect volunteers finish the set up, I wondered how badly everything would go. My street syndicate had had the entire basket cleared; the odds against this were so large they could not be easily stated. The sy
