‘Oh yes, sir. For a bunch of ignorant bigots and rednecks who scrape all the skin of their knuckles as they walk along, the TDF are okay, in the judgment of Radoslaw. Of course, Radoslaw allows Vince the sheep to do stealthy farts behind couch, so perhaps his judgment is not to be relied upon.’

They were deep into the suburbs now, with no sign of any of the security checkpoints or roadblocks. Local traffic had appeared, a smattering of merchants were opening their businesses, and increasing numbers of people were walking the streets, some holding cups of coffee, others carrying bread and milk. It seemed to Caitlin that the Hummer could’ve been touring through a massive, open-air art installation. Life before the Disappearance.

She sat forward too now, her turn to quiz their Polish raconteur. ‘Do you mind if I ask, Sergeant – the other families in the settlement with your brother, do you know where they come from?’

‘Two from Poland, good people,’ replied Milosz. ‘Two more came from refugee camps in England, the working farms. And the others I am not sure. From Seattle, maybe.’

She said nothing in response, preferring to mull over that in private. The families who had arrived from England probably came off a farm not unlike hers and Bret’s. The other Poles would’ve been people like Milosz’s family, descended from hardy peasant stock and selected for the resettlement program because of their familiarity with agricultural work. They might have gained extra points towards selection if they had a relative, like Fryderyk Milosz, who had volunteered for federal service. The final two, from Seattle, she could not guess at.

‘One more question,’ she said. ‘These families down in Richards, are they all white?’

‘Oh yes,’ said the Ranger, without a trace of discomfort. ‘No nig-nogs or sand bandits in my brother’s village.’

*

It took them thirty minutes to cover the distance from Temple to the gates of Fort Hood. As Milosz moved onto other topics, Caitlin pondered Jackson Blackstone.

It made sense, she supposed, for Blackstone to have set himself up in the former headquarters of Fort Hood. The base itself was more easily secured than the civilian town centre, to its east. He had actively recruited among former members of the military for his own migration and resettlement program. The base’s infrastructure had survived well, and with thousands of disgruntled, footloose, former US military personnel to draw on, ramping the place back up to becoming a functioning facility would have been a lot easier than the task Musso faced over in Temple. An additional argument could be made that the Hood was simply too valuable to leave unattended, given that it was the largest existing US Army installation in North America. Roberto didn’t have power projection capability yet, but he would have everything he needed if he were able to get to Fort Hood first.