“Mr. Sabreur,” Rove said, “you’re a good servant of the Crown, are you not? A loyal man? You’ve seen the sort of circus they’re running here, a zoo where all the cages are open. I can’t believe any of this sits well with you. We are facing the destruction of everything we know. But even if this ludicrous plan of Khan’s succeeds, do you really think that the things we truly value will survive? Do you think life can go on as before, with our country riddled with rat-creatures and cavemen and who knows what else? Do you honestly think that once our ‘host’ has dropped us off in England this monster will just go away? Why should it, when it has us to lord it over? The Earth was a prehistoric wasteland when it left, and now there’s a whole planet of slaves which it can get to treat it as a god. There’ll be religions and cults dedicated to it within a week, once we’re back. And you know how these cavemen have been infiltrating our society for decades…That woman has a seat at a U.S. university, for God’s sake. Do you really think they haven’t been pulling strings elsewhere, in the Oval Office, at Downing Street? Believe me, I’ve been opposing their machinations for a long time.”

“So what’s your alternative?”

“Reset the clock, Mr. Sabreur. Burn away the rot that’s been degrading our society, this monstrous fifth column. Rebuild something truly human, English, from the ruins. After all, you saw how things were collapsing back home, when we left. What state do you think things are in by now?”

Julian said nothing, and Alison waited for his rebuttal. For him to follow the line that Hind had been taking towards any and all of Rove’s machinations.

“We can’t save everything,” Rove said softly. “It’s too late for that now, whatever Khan says. But we can save England, Mr. Sabreur. We can save what we love.”

Something shifted in Julian, just slightly, and yet it opened up a great gulf of space between him and Alison. She wanted to shout at him; she wanted to tell him about the great sliding blocks that were slotting into place in the ice, co-opting Khan’s work to serve Rove’s plan. But she remained frozen, wordless, and at heart she knew that Julian’s weakness was also her own. Rove had a plan; she and Julian had none. They were surplus to the requirements of this scenario, utterly without significance or power. The only way they could take control of their destiny was to choose a side.

“Explain,” Julian said, but the aggressive tension was leaching out of him. Alison knew that in her silence she was just as complicit as he was and that they were bad people after all.

I