The Ministry of Time

The narrator keeps Graham’s sketch of the projection device, filing it away because meticulously documenting things has always given her a sense of control. When she shows it to Quentin, he becomes quite agitated, crumples the sketch, and says the Ministry offices are bugged. The narrator chalks it up to paranoia from the stress of his work. She continues to note Graham’s interests and dislikes regarding modern life: He has no interest in films, as the other expats do, but loves the endless access to classical and Motown music via streaming services. The routine Ministry assessments now include empathy tests. The expats are horrified by images of World War I destruction, so the Ministry decides to hold off on introducing them to Hiroshima, Auschwitz, and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The bridges also undergo tests. They’re hooked up to polygraphs and asked about how they’re feeling. Adela seems to suspect the narrator of an inappropriate, romantic attachment to Graham.

Feeling that her authority has made her seem “sexless” in Graham’s eyes, the narrator buys a hand-sewn purse in the shape of a chicken, which she hopes will make Graham see her as girlish. Realizing the expats struggle to relate to each other as much as to modern society, they begin having dinner together weekly, along with their bridges. At one of these dinners, the narrator becomes jealous when she thinks Graham is flirting with Sixteen-sixty-five, a stunningly beautiful woman named Margaret Kemble. Maggie, as she comes to be called, is friendly toward both Graham and the narrator but can’t stand the sexist Lt. Cardingham. After surviving a brutal heat wave in which water and air conditioning are strictly rationed, the narrator teaches Graham to ride a bicycle.

Ralph, another bridge, requests that Adela hold a scheduled progress meeting with all the bridges. Just before the meeting begins, the narrator discovers that Adela has been throwing away the bridge’s weekly reports on the expats without opening them. In the meeting, Ralph says there’s a problem with his expat, Maggie, that he isn’t qualified to handle: She’s a lesbian. When the narrator relays this to Graham, he says that what she’s describing he considers a set of habits rather than an identity. Later that day, he tells the narrator about his friend Robert McClure and their time together on a voyage. Robert clung to him every night and wept, Graham says, emphasizing how lonely Robert had been. The narrator is unsure how to interpret Graham’s story.

Soon after this, the narrator receives an email citing irregularities with the results of one of the expat’s medical scans. A second email quickly follows, denying any irregularities. The narrator calls Quentin from a pay phone, at his insistence. He says Seventeen-ninety-three has stopped showing up on body scanners and MRIs. Then he asks about the projection device. Before the narrator can answer, Quentin hears clicks on the line, says it isn’t secure, and hangs up. The narrator, however, can’t take his fears seriously.

Gore goes hunting again but finds only partridges with little meat on them. Thirst forces him to head back to the ship. He considers the possibility of death dispassionately and without fear. He sees what he thinks is a seal on the ice and shoots it. However, the resulting cry sounds human.

The next time the narrator emails Quentin to relay a request from Graham, the email bounces back, undelivered. Adela calls too soon after for it to be a coincidence and says he’s temporarily unavailable. Realizing how thoroughly she’s being monitored forces the narrator to decide how she fits into this government machine. She must decide between rebelling and protecting herself.

The Ministry begins hosting a biweekly lecture series. On Tuesdays, the bridges give lectures on contemporary British culture. On Thursdays, an expat gives a presentation on a topic they find interesting. Maggie lectures on Charlie Chaplin, and Cardingham talks about the Manson murders, for example. Graham and Arthur give a musical performance of a Jackson 5 song on the flute and keyboard, respectively. The expats reach the phase of the project in which they’ll be allowed to travel freely within mainland Britain if they can pass an acclimatization test. The theory that assimilating is necessary for an expat to truly belong leads the narrator to feel rejected by Graham’s intermittent disdain for the 21st century.

On the day of Graham’s acclimatization test, the narrator accompanies him to the Ministry and finds Quentin’s office space empty. The Brigadier and another man who’s often with him named Salese show up there. Their manner of speech sounds even stranger than before. They talk about Seventeen-ninety-three either being rejected by the 21st century or “beginning to slip out of time” (117). As the narrator and Graham celebrate his passing the acclimatization exam, the narrator seems to recognize that she’s fallen for Graham and that it’s problematic. The two have Arthur and Maggie over for dinner soon after. The group gets drunk and high, and the guests stay overnight.

In the fall, Graham and Arthur take a trip to Scotland together. The body scanner at the airport doesn’t register Graham’s body, but the Ministry opts to let him continue the trip to avoid damaging his adjustment. As a result, though, the Ministry creates a new working group to study expats’ “readability.” This means more tests and scans. The narrator jokes about how it all feels “MK-Ultra,” referring to an illegal human experiments program in the US from 1953 to 1973. Simellia raises more serious concerns about the ethics of what they’re doing. The narrator doesn’t respond sympathetically to Simellia’s related comments about colonialism in Cambodia, and they part on bad terms.