He read the document. “I don’t want to sign this,” he said. “It would mean I’m authorizing discontinuing life support -- it’s like signing... her death warrant!”“No, Jason ... You’re not authorizing anything.”“Naomi is correct,” Popp said. “This is a release form the hospital requires. Your mother is legally deceased. We need no authorization to withdraw a ventilator from a deceased patient.”“Then, why have this form?”“The hospital requires it,” Naomi answered, “to document that next-of-kin have. It was raining. She wrapped herself up in a trench coat and ventured out for a walk. Sometimes she felt she needed just to spend a little time by herself, thinking about what she had learned but today she felt independent, and just wanted to do what she wanted to do.She made her way to Cambridge Circus. It was only five minutes walk from the Tea Parlour but it was, at least, a change of scene. It was pedestrianised now and used as a venue for New Order rallies. The intelligence services were. They were all doing the usual vermin things — drinking Fruity, smoking from marijuana pipes, watching porno shows on their PCs — but most of them were completely ignoring the passing police cart. A few had even waved at them, something that had been so unusual as to be unheard of not long before. As Lisa had said, it was eerie in a way. It was like everyone had been given some sort of happy gas."Incoming call," said the dash-mounted computer, which was linked to the dispatch system via cellular. It's called a spiritual bonding ceremony. We cannot even consider us to be married, or we will run afoul of the law about bigamy. However, each of us will be well cared for, even if any of us split up or die. We have a decent amount of money available to us."Just like your daughter, I somehow knew that she would be a part of me, from the first time I met her. I felt the same way about Tammy too. I never once thought of hiring anyone else until now. But we will be looking for some new employees.