Extract from 'Robet Sterdam' by Jack Burston

Hovering, Robert finished his snack and wiped the excess food from his hands and mouth. He sat in the fully metallic chair that was screwed in to the ground—the chair faced the front door of Robert’s apartment and the television that sat a metre in front of him displayed a figure. The number related to the number of people that were inside the building at the moment he looked. Currently, there were 389. The number would increase and decrease sporadically. Occasionally there would be a sharp increase for a dinner party or for the monthly orgy that Clarence threw. The exact number of inhabitants in the building lay between 360 and 380. He had rented this apartment for just over a month and since finding the television he had decided that the number of tenants must be between these figures. But Robert did not know the exact number of tenants.