We stepped back out onto the street, but there was no sound or sign of movement. I hauled the sack over one shoulder, struggling under the weight, and wondered if maybe Oskar didn’t have a point after all. More than likely any Patriot agents who decided to treat us with suspicion would want a look inside the bag.

I felt my stomach sink half a block later at the sound of an approaching engine. I looked sideways at Yuichi, seeing his alarm. Rozalia was walking up ahead of us, and she paused at the corner before looking back and mouthing Patriots at us.

Oskar hurried up behind me, grabbing hold of the rear of the sack. Together we carried it over to a dense patch of weeds growing around a tree which provided the perfect concealment.

A jeep drove past, slowing when the two Patriot agents inside it saw us. Both of them were conspicuously armed.

‘Hey,’ said one of them as he climbed out of the jeep. ‘Why are you out during the curfew?’

‘What curfew?’ asked Rozalia, sounding genuinely puzzled.

‘You’re supposed to be inside,’ said the other agent, stepping out of the jeep to join his buddy.

I stepped forward, putting myself between them and the patch of weeds. ‘Nobody’s heard anything about a curfew,’ I said truthfully. I tried to look scared and confused; it wasn’t hard. ‘We just went to Government House to try and find out what’s going on, but there’s nobody there.’

‘You need to go home,’ said the second Patriot, his rifle held pointing to the ground, but angled so he could bring it back up in a moment. ‘And stay there.’

‘Absolutely,’ said Rozalia, nodding intently. ‘We’ll do that right away.’

‘You can’t tell us what’s going on?’ asked Oskar, with more than a touch of belligerence. ‘The way I see it, you people owe us an explanation. Or do you just drive around with those big guns of yours for fun?’

I fought down the urge to turn and scream at him to shut up. If he screwed this up for us, the chances were that people were going to get killed.

The Patriot’s expression hardened, and I saw his hands tighten around his rifle. ‘Get the hell out of here,’ he snarled. ‘And if I see any of you out in the streets again, you go in a goddam cell and stay there until someone maybe feels like letting you out. Do you understand me?’

‘Absolutely,’ I said, smiling and nodding as obsequiously as I could. ‘No problem, sir.’ I gave him a cheery wave which, in retrospect, might have been overkill.

The two agents glanced at each other and shook their heads, then got back in their jeep and drove off. Once they were out of sight I sat hard on the ground, my legs feeling like jelly.