Booby Trap

-Read this, said Carter.

-What is it?

-Never mind. Just read it.

His tone was urgent:

-Come on, quickly! he said. Tell me what you think.

I took the thick sheaf of pages and began to scan them.

-My God, I whispered. How have they done this?

-Bizarre, isn't it? It's an exact record of the conversation we are
having at this very moment. A word by word transcript.

-Yes, I murmured. There are one or two authorial interventions like:
'said Carter', 'his tone was urgent', 'I murmured', and so on - but
apart from that you're right. It's an absolutely faithful record of
what we're saying right now.

-They're mocking us, said Carter. The bastards. It's a joke to them.
They're fictionalising us, to make us seem powerless.

-They certainly possess abilities we'd never dreamt of, I said. They
can obviously see into the future, and observe even our most intimate
conversations, over immense distances.

I shrugged helplessly:

-We've no defence against this kind of thing.

-One thing puzzles me though, mused Carter.

-What's that?

-This transcript: it's not a neutral document. It's written from your
point of view.

-You're right. So it is, I said.

I wondered if Carter had hit on something important. Perhaps this was
an aporia, a weak-spot we might exploit to our advantage. But then the
way I found myself reading these very thoughts on the page in front of
me, before I had even finished thinking them, made it seem
unlikely...

-Hang on, I said. What if we skip ahead to the ending? If we do, we'll
see the conclusion of this conversation before we actually get there.
Then we might be able to alter the outcome, or take action before they
expect us to do so.

-You're right, said Carter. Go on.

I flipped through to the final page.

-What does it say? Carter asked anxiously.

I looked up at him in horror.

-Oh my God it's a trap! I screamed. It says: 'It says: 'It says: 'It
says: 'It says: 'It says: 'It says: 'It says: 'It says: ...