Yrtl felt his plant activate, like a spring uncoiling in his brain, as it began downloading details of his moral transgressions over the past few days. Apprehensively, he watched the figures accumulate on the screen:

Venial Sins: 47

Ouch – that was going to cost some.

Mortal Sins: 3

Three! It must be a mistake: sure, he’d cursed some when they’d lost the big contract, and he’d wished that bad thing on his mother – but what else? Unless it was what he’d thought about Murt’s wife when he’d seen her sunbathing yesterday…

Mortal Sins: 4

Shit!

Venial Sins: 48

Hurriedly, he thrust his credit fob into the slot.

TOTAL DEBIT: 99,784 credits

Absolution in progress…please wait

A progress bar began to crawl across the screen; Yrtl breathed a sigh of relief as he felt his moral slate being wiped clean – until the bar suddenly froze.

ERROR 327B4. Please contact your System Administrator. Shutting down.

The screen went blank and the lights in the booth clicked off, leaving Yrtl in darkness.