From the simplest actions to the most complicated, they racked their brains to diagram daily life, even if the Zurich tests didn’t require it. And not because Enzo wanted to but because, as usual, Lila, who had begun diffidently, grew more and more excited each day, and now, in spite of the cold at night, she was frantic to reduce the entire wretched world they lived in to the truth of 0s and 1s. She seemed to aspire to an abstract linearity—the abstraction that bred all abstractions—hoping that it would assure her a restful tidiness.

“Let’s diagram the factory,” she proposed one evening.

“The whole process?” he asked, bewildered.

“Yes.”

He looked at her, he said: “All right, let’s start with your job.”

An irritated scowl crossed her face; she said good night and went to her room.