Remainder by Tom McCarthy Read Free Book Online Page A

here, whereas in roulette you mostly lose. But with a roulette table, there are sectors, clusters of numbers you can bet on, then rows, then colours, odds/evens and so on. The wise roulette player covers the whole board strategically rather than staking all his chips on just one number. Similarly, when playing the stock market you should cover several fields. There’s banking, manufacturing, telecommunications, oil, pharmaceuticals, technology…”
    “Technology,” I said. “I like technology.”
    “Good,” Younger said. “That sector’s one we’re very well-disposed towards as well. We could…”
    “What was the one you mentioned just before that?” I asked.
    “Pharmaceuticals. The big drug companies are always an…”
    “No: before that.”
    “Oil?”
    “No: signals, messages, connections.”
    “Telecommunications?”
    “Yes! Exactly.”
    “That’s a very promising sector. Mobile telephone penetration is increasing at an almost exponential rate year after year. And then as more types of link-up between phones and internet and hi-fi systems and who knows what else become possible, more imaginary futures open up. You see the principle?”
    “Yes,” I said. “Let’s go for those two: telecommunications and technology.”
    “Well, we could certainly weight your portfolio in that direction,” Younger began—but paused when the perfectly-held-hair receptionist walked in. “Ah, here’s your coffee,” he said.
    She was carrying it on a small tray, like the ones stewardesses use in aeroplanes. As she set it down on the polished table I noticed that it was a two-part construction: the cup itself, then, slotted into that, a plastic filter section where the coffee grains themselves were. It made me think of those moon landing modules from the Sixties, the way the segments slot together. There was a saucer too, of course: three parts. The receptionist lowered the whole assemblage gently down onto the table’s surface, set a small jar of cream, a bowl of rough-hewn blocks of sugar and a spoon beside it, and then blasted away again with the tray.
    “We could certainly look at weighting it that way,” Younger continued. “But my point in putting forward the roulette analogy was that it’s best to cover several sectors of the…”
    “Yes, I understand,” I told him. “But I want to know where I am. To occupy a particular sector, rather than be everywhere and nowhere, all confused. I want to have a…a…” I searched for the right word for a long time, and eventually found it: “position.”
    “A position?” he repeated.
    “Yes,” I said. “A position. Telecommunications and technology.”
    Now Younger looked flustered.
    “While I view both these sectors as most promising ones, I feel that this degree of localization, and especially given the great sum we’re proposing to invest, does represent an excessive level of exposure to contingencies. I’d much prefer…”
    “If you won’t do it,” I said, “I’ll go to another stockbroker.”
    Younger tensed up. He seemed to shrink even more; his voice shrank into silence while he took in what I’d said. Then he struck up that hearty look once more, took a deep breath and boomed out:
    “We can do it. Absolutely. It’s your money. I merely advise. I’d advise a degree of diversification—but if you don’t want that, then that’s perfectly…”
    “Telecommunications and technology,” I said. As soon as he’d explained how it worked, I’d known exactly what I wanted, instantly. It was my money, not his.
    Matthew Younger started flicking through the pages of his almanac. I lifted the filter section off my coffee cup and tried to balance it on the saucer’s edge, but it fell off onto the table. I noticed that the water hadn’t filtered through completely: black goop was still seeping from the gauze bottom, running out across the table’s surface. I dabbed at it with my fingers, trying to stop it reaching the table’s edge and