“Obi, they keep you school brats sheltered. Listen closely. Voltaire’s movement started out as a ragtag group of kids in Hannibal. Voltaire, the leader of the gang, stopped taking the Rebirth and coached the other members into refusing the Rebirth too. It might have stopped there, if Voltaire hadn’t been so extraordinarily blessed.”

“Blessed? With what?”

“The gift of the written word. Two years ago, Voltaire started publishing pamphlets theorizing that the Rebirth is morally wrong and demanding that the Record Keepers disavow it. The pamphlets spread like wildfire. Hundreds joined the Rebel gang.”

“How extraordinary. A Second Brother mentally capable of constructing theories.”

“And arguing them convincingly,” Hosea added.

“So, what happened?” I said.

“Well, nothing at first. The Record Keepers didn’t care about Voltaire’s cause. For them, it was business as usual. Nothing changed until Voltaire orchestrated a silent protest. The gang published a pamphlet that persuaded hundreds of workers to sit down in the middle of the field and refuse to work or eat for three days.”

I gasped. “But what about the harvest?”

“Exactly,” Hosea said. “When the Overseers grew concerned about the quota, they blamed the Record Keepers, for not keeping the Second Brothers in line. Of course, the Record Keepers blamed the Overseers. It was a mess. In the end, the Rebels got attention, which is exactly what Voltaire wanted.”

“But the laws didn’t change. The Rebirth is still staunchly observed.”

“Actually, Cobane, the laws did change. The fugitive yesterday is a prime example.”

I frowned. “The fugitive? He was convicted of distributing illegal paraphernalia.”

“Illegal paraphernalia, otherwise known as Voltaire’s pamphlets.”

“Oh! So they outlawed the pamphlets?”

“Yes, along with any writing that discourages or disparages the Rebirth.”

“Oh…” I frowned. Somehow, that didn’t seem right.

“Of course, Voltaire continued to write and, eventually, got caught.”

“So, Voltaire is dead?”

Hosea looked surprised. “Not at all—far from it. The punishment for distributing illegal paraphernalia is not execution, but intermittent Rebirth. Since Voltaire was convicted of publishing ten different pamphlets, ten Rebirth pills were administered as punishment.”

I gasped. “Ten on the same day! The possibility of misfire would be astronomical.”

He nodded. “Everyone thought the rebellion was over—”

“But?”

“But Voltaire survived the dosing, escaped in January of this year and went into hiding. After Voltaire’s exile, the gang changed. They turned militant. What’s more, they went undercover. They used to boast of their Rebel state. They grew their hair long and wore these bronzed extension cords looped with bits of old-world wreckage—ink cartridges, computer chips, coils. But now they’ve stopped all that. They blend in, so they’re indistinguishable from Loyalists.”

“If Voltaire is in exile, who’s leading the Army?”