‘Who cares?’ said Theo indifferently. ‘But if yer so keen ter know, there he is,’ she added a moment later, gesturing towards a grassy patch several feet away from the tent, across from where Castor and June had turned off. Looking to the other side, Albert saw Marcus, sitting with his back to them, staring out into space. A group of children skirted the corner, running and laughing. They stopped when they saw him, then, giving him as wide a berth as possible, ran onwards. Marcus seemed not to notice—he just kept gazing into the distance.

‘Would you care to join them, Theo?’ asked Father.

‘Nah,’ said Theo, frowning at the children. ‘They ain’t even playin’ anythin’ interestin’.’ She brightened up. ‘Mebbe I can make ’em! Be back in a bit.’ She sped off towards the children, shouting even as she approached them. ‘Oi! Oi! What be happenin’? You guys wanna do somethin’ really cool?’

‘The child is a born leader,’ said Father, looking at her rapidly retreating figure. ‘With the right instruction, who knows? Perhaps one day she might even …’

Albert looked at him. ‘What are these incidents Castor was talking about?’

‘Incidents? Oh, yes. Robberies, muggings, petty crime, that sort of thing. Mostly due to the addiction problem.’

‘How bad is it? The addiction problem?’

‘It is pretty bad,’ Father admitted. ‘It’s always been there, but the number of cases is going up all the time. There’s hardly anyone who doesn’t know someone who’s affected. We have our hands full.’

‘So what do you do with the addicts you find?’

‘Well, to begin with, finding them is often tricky. They’re resourceful and cunning, which is not surprising, considering their drug of choice is information. And, of course, it affects different people in different ways, so it’s not always possible to identify who’s a user and who isn’t. You can always tell the hardcore addicts, but as for the rest, it’s not that easy. Still, our detox tents are always full.’

‘Detox tents?’

‘Yes. That’s where we detain those we find under the influence, until it wears off and we can shift them to the sick-camp. But to tell the truth, that’s when the real problems start. That’s when they go looking for the next fix and the crime begins, which stretches us even thinner.’

‘Don’t Ucho’s men help with that as well?’

‘Yes, as do others, but how many can we lock up?’

‘But why don’t you crack down on the sources? You know, the people selling it and so on?’