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‘OK.’

Kohn walked back to the truck and climbed in, to find that Janis had been covering the whole incident with his previously discarded pistol. He smiled, kissed his finger and thumb at her and strapped in. The Rough Trader was striding towards the apartment block; the crank agents were talking into a mike in their disabled van. Laughing, Kohn eased the truck out of the square and along a narrow street, forcing a ridiculously broad pink Cadillac to mount the pavement as it came towards them. Then, after a few more back streets, they were on the clearway again.

Janis said, ‘Explanation time.’

‘Parachutes,’ Kohn said.

‘Huh?’

‘That place is an ANR front. The whole femininism thing is a cover-up.’ They both laughed. ‘They’re busy making parachutes and fabric panels for microlites and hang-gliders, using manual sewing-machines. No software, see? Nothing to trace. Bulk orders on the Black Plan, like Jordan told us. They must be preparing for something big soon. And, think of it, all these dolly secretaries and so on must make pretty good spies.’

‘What about the ones who really believe in it?’

‘I doubt if there are many, and they can be kept harmlessly occupied. That was what all that fussy domestic craftwork crap was about in the first place, if I remember my social-history books.’

Janis looked as if she had caught up with herself.

‘Yes, but what happened back there?’

He told her: how the shapes hadn’t seemed right, and what Valery had told him; finding Catherin, and how and why she’d set him up. Janis already knew about his earlier relationship with Catherin – they’d spent hours of the past days and nights telling each other everything. But she was upset.

‘Oh, Moh!’ Janis stared straight ahead.

‘I know I shouldn’t have—’

‘No, it’s just – why did you do it in the first place? Why did she try to get back at you like that? Sounds to me like two people out to hurt each other. A particularly nasty lovers’ quarrel.’

‘I never thought of it like that,’ he said, considering. ‘It was business, politics. I felt she’d betrayed what we had stood for, that she fucking deserved it, working for these creatures from the swamp after, after—’

He was reduced to hand-waving.

‘After standing shoulder to shoulder with you for scientific-technological socialism?’

Kohn gave her a half-amused grimace that admitted the explanation lacked plausibility. ‘Something like that.’

She squeezed his knee. ‘It’s all right, I’m not jealous. Well, I am, actually. But I know what I’m up against.’

‘Yeah,’ Kohn said. ‘No competition at all.’

‘Why did they let you get away?’

‘There’s a formula,’ Kohn said, ‘a password for these situations. Goes a bit further than the old Civis Britannicus sum. You say it to the right person, you’re a citizen of the Republic. That’s what I did when I saw it was our only way out. The Republic, the ANR, they don’t give a damn for the militia rules of engagement. So now things are, like, different.’

‘Meaning what?’

‘Well, any sort of little skirmishes we get into now are gonna be war. It won’t be like being a mercenary or even just defending ourselves the way we did back there.’

‘You’re telling me you’ve joined the ANR?’

‘Not exactly, but I’ve agreed to carry out its lawful orders, as a citizen of the Republic.’ He looked over at her, feeling he had more explaining to do. ‘It wasn’t just to get out of Cat’s clutches. I’ve been thinking about it. The Republic’s the only place I’ll ever find the answers to what’s happened to me. Like Logan said, it’s the safest place for us. And for whatever data is stashed in the gun’s computer. As for the politics of it, hell, if Josh could square whatever he was doing with working for the Republic, so can I.’

Janis was silent for a moment. Then she said, ‘I want to join, too. Be a citizen. How do I do it?’

‘I told you the first time this came up: you’re still a citizen. From school, remember? If you want to be an active citizen, you contact another one, and volunteer. Like I just did.’

‘Damn, I could’ve done it back