“Ten years ago,” said Loaf, “the People’s Revolutionary Council was the government, and the only people who hated them and wanted to rebel were former nobles like General Citizen and Param’s mother.”

“But we won’t recruit people ten years ago,” said Olivenko. “That’s just where we go to build up supplies. You bring the first recruits to the place ten years ago; then you bring later recruits to nine years ago, and eight, with each new increment clearing more land, farming more food, mining more ore, making more ­weapons. Your raids capture food and weapons and you bring them back to whatever time you need them. So the earliest recruits will have ten years in the enclave, but the newest will only arrive when there’s plenty for them to eat, and only with time enough to train them.”

“So we raid today, then bring the supplies to the enclave at the time we need them,” said Umbo.

“Your timeshaping is what sets you apart from other ­rebels, you see,” said Olivenko. “There’s no reason not to use your ­abilities. General Citizen or whatever he’s calling himself—he can hunt for you all he wants, but you’re not only outside the wallfold between raids, you’re also three or five or eight years in the past.”

“It’s going to take some real care not to bring people back to a time before they came to the enclave,” said Umbo. “It won’t do to have them meet themselves. Or to have you or any of us making new copies of ourselves.”

“We’ll keep a calendar,” said Rigg. “We’ll organize each cohort according to their time of recruitment, and make sure we always bring a group home from a raid to some time after they left on that raid.”

“Everything in proper order,” said Olivenko. “And we’ll also schedule the raids on various arsenals and stockpiles for times when they’re not looked for.”

“What would happen,” said Umbo, “if our first raid were the most recent—say, last Thursday—and our next raid was a week before that, and the next was two weeks earlier. So that every raid is the first one and we always have surprise.”

“I don’t know,” said Rigg. “Wouldn’t that make it so they were ready for us on the earlier raids after all?”

“Not if a timeshaper is always with each cohort,” said Umbo. “The successful raid already happened in the timestream of the timeshaper, and it can’t be changed by having the next raid take place earlier. Can it?”

Rigg pressed fingers to his forehead. “Just when I think I’m beginning to understand how this works, there’s some crazy new idea that changes everything.”

“It’s simple enough,” said Param. “Do one raid, and then do the next one earlier, and see if it changes the previous-but-later raid.”