Who hired Nick Stavrianos in the first place in Greg Egan's Quarantine?

Question

I think I might have missed something, but who hired the private investigator Nick Stavrianos (by calling him in his dream) to find Laura Andrews in this novel?

Answer 1

Total Spoiler Warning:

It isn't stated in the book. The implication, however, is that the events that took place retroactively came into existence by the combined influence of all the smeared consciousnesses, human or otherwise.

Some quotes:

"What do you mean?"

"The entire planet, the smeared human race--"

"But they weren't... they still aren't. Not the whole planet, even now--"

"No--but if they will be, or might be, don't you think they could choose their past? You know what one smeared human can do--dont you thinkan amalgam of twelve billion would be able to tunnel its way into existence, by whatever means that would take?"

...

"It found a way to happen, and you were part of it, that's all."

"I see."

So my "liberation" from the loyalty mod, from Karen, is more of a joke than ever. I am who I am only because I served as a conduit for this apocalypse, a fault line through which the future smeared humanity could force itself into being.

Quarantine. p. 275

If you've read Egan's Distress as well, there is a similar notion:

Existence retroactively becomes real from the point of discovery of the Theory of Everything.

Answer 2

It doesn't exactly appear in the novel. In my opinion, there are two possibilities.

For the first, Dr. Lui Kiu-chung may choose him as the right person to acquire the 'Ensemble'. Lui was looking for his colleagues - members of Cannon - who had 'loyal mode' implanted. Nick would have been one of the candidates, then it's quite natural that Lui approached Nick in ASR. Lui's $500,000 compensation to Nick is not just a goal of acquiring the Ensemble, but also a reward for his mission to find Laura.

The second is Laura's own assignment. Laura is described as having a macroscopic vision of humanity, which may have given mankind the choice to run the Ensemble.

The second theory is delicious to my taste, but logically, the first one would be right. To sum up, I think Lui would have done that.