«We'll see. If you ever looked outside your little valley of paradise you'd see it's already starting. Govcentral policies don't work here, not any more. Those bastards are destroying us with their equal settlement policies. They won't listen to us when we complain, all they do is keep sending us more human xenocs who don't belong here. You'll come round to our way eventually, Amanda, and when you do, when you remember who you really belong with, we'll help each other, you and me.»

The hound padded over to the pick-up, and started sniffing round the back of the vehicle.

Amanda didn't dare risk a glance at Jane. «What are you doing here? Why did you come?»

Derry was frowning at the hound. «We're assigned to Harrisburg's C15 Division.»

«I'm sorry, I don't really know much about police force divisions. What does that mean?»

«C15 is responsible for counter-insurgency. Basically, we hunt down terrorists, Amanda Foxon. And right now, we're after a particularly nasty specimen. Abdul Musaf. He planted a viral vector squirt in the Finsbury arcade last night. Fifteen people are in hospital with cancer runaways sprouting inside them like mushrooms. Two have developed brain tumours. They're not going to make it. So obviously, we're rather keen to talk to him. You seen anyone like that around here?»

I should tell her, Amanda thought. A viral squirt was a terrible thing to use against innocent people. But I can't be certain she's telling the truth, a woman who thinks Jews are a plague.

«No. Why, should I have?»

«He killed one of our pursuit dogs a couple of kilometres south of your track. But he was hurt in the fight. Can't have got far.»

«OK. We'll keep watch for him.»

The hound had wandered over to the big patch of wet ground outside the kitchen door.

«Right.» Derry pursed her lips, suspicious and ill at ease. «What about you, Jew girl? You seen him? He's a Muslim, you know, one of the Legion.»

«No. I haven't seen anybody.»

«Huh. Bloody typical, don't know crap about anything, you people. OK, I don't suppose you'd harbour a towelhead anyway.»

«If you're a Christian, why have you got an affinity-bonded dog? I thought the Pope banned the faithful from using the bond over a century ago.»

The hound raised its head swiftly, swinging round to look at Jane. The lips parted again, allowing long strands of gooey saliva to drip onto the soil.

«Don't push your luck. The only reason you're not under arrest right now is because I don't want to waste taxpayers' money on you. You get back on that road when you're done here, head for your precious Tasmal.»

«Yes, sir.»

Derry snorted contemptuously. «Take my advice, Amanda Foxon, kick this thieving rabble off your land the second your crop's picked. And next year, hire some decent Christians. Get in touch with the Union, they have plenty of honest casual labourers on their books.»

«I'll remember what you said.»

If Sergeant Derry was aware of the irony, she didn't show it. She pulled on her reins, wheeling the big stallion round. The hound trotted out of the gate ahead of the horses.

Amanda realized she was sweating, muscles down the back of her legs twitched as if she'd just run to town and back. Jane patted her gently.

«Not bad for an amateur rebel. You faced her down.»

Guy pressed himself to her side, and hugged her waist. «She was horrid, Mum.»

«I know. Don't worry, she's gone now.»

«But she'll be back,» Jane muttered. «Her kind always are. Your file's in her memory now.»

«She'll have no reason to come back,» Amanda said. She handed Guy over to Lenny, then went back into the farmhouse.

Blake was helping Fakhud to limp up the stairs from the cellar. Both of them were shivering.

«Did you give people cancer?»

Fakhud drew a strained breath as he reached the top of the stairs. «Is that what the police said?»

«Yes.»

«They lied. I oppose many issues on this planet, but I am not a monster. I would not use weapons like that. Do you know why?»

«Tell me.»

«Because we have children, too. If the Legion started a terror campaign of that nature, others would begin similar campaigns against us.»

«They already are. All of you are fighting each other. All you maniacs.»

«Yes. But not like that, not yet. So far we confine ourselves to sabotage and assassinations of key opponents. Allah grant that it does not move beyond that. If it does, we shall all suffer; this whole world will drown in pain.»

«Why? Why do you do this?»

«To defend ourselves. To defend our way of life. Just as you would do if anything threatened this farm. We have the right to do that, to resist Govcentral's imperialism.»

«Just go,» she said. Tears of frustration were swelling behind her eyes. «Go, and don't come back.»

The pick-up was loaded with boxes of apples for one of its regular runs to the station in Knightsville. At the same time, several of the male pickers went in and out of the house, all of them wearing wide-brimmed sunhats which obscured their faces. Fakhud, dressed in Lenny's clothes, emerged and went over to the van. He lay in a coffin-sized gap between the boxes, while more were stacked over him.

Blake drove away as the sun was less than an hour from the mountains. Amanda tried not to show any concern, keeping the rest of the farm's activities normal. The pickers remained out in the orchard, working until dusk. Their evening meal was prepared on the large solar accumulator grill in the barn. Everyone had their shower then sat around in the farmyard until the food was cooked.

Amanda stood beside the gate to eat her chicken wing. From there she would be able to see the van's headlights as it returned along the track. If Blake had kept to his schedule, he should have been back forty minutes ago.

Guy climbed up the low wall and sat on top, his skinny legs dangling over the other side. «I didn't like today,» he said solemnly.

She leant forward against the wall, and put her arm round his shoulder. «Me neither.»

«Was that fat woman really a police officer?»

«Yes, I'm afraid so.»

«She didn't like anybody. Are all police officers like that?»

«No. You don't have to be a police officer to hate other kinds of people. Everybody on Nyvan does it.»

«Everybody?»

«Well, too many of us, anyway.»

«Why?»

«There's a lot of reasons. But mainly because Govcentral is forcing different kinds of people to live next to each other. They do it because they think it's fair, that people should be treated equally. Which they should be, I'm not complaining about that. The problem is, the immigrants aren't used to other cultures.»

«But they all get on together on Earth.»

«They get on together in different arcologies; they might be on the same planet, but they're all segregated. And the people who come here to Nyvan, especially now, are the poor ones. They don't have much education so they're very set in their ways, very stubborn, and not very tolerant.»

«What do you mean, now? Haven't poor people always come here? I remember Father telling me Grandpa didn't have any money when he arrived.»

«That's true, but Grandpa wanted to come. He was a pioneer who wanted to build a fresh world for himself. Most of the people of that time were. That's changed now.» She pointed up at the night sky. «See those stars up there? Their planets aren't like Nyvan. The new colony worlds have ethnic streaming policies; they're all sponsored by different Govcentral states, so the only people you get emigrating to them are the ones from the same arcology. As they're all the same to start with, they don't quarrel so much.»

«Then why are people still coming here?»

«Because Earth is so overcrowded, and we're close to it, only seventeen light-years away. That makes travelling here one of the cheapest starflights possible. So Govcentral sends us all the people who can't afford to pay the passage to another planet, all the unemployed and petty criminals, people who never really wanted to come here in the first place.»