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thousand things he could have cited in order to support his argument. So many, in fact, that he didn’t even bother. He just ignored me.
    â€˜Where does Mavra come in?’ asked Eve.
    â€˜The political situation in the Splinters as a whole, and Rhapsody in particular, is in a state of perpetual confusion and flux. Today’s exiles are tomorrow’s heroes. Small heresies may so easily become divine revelations. In matters of belief, fashion is a powerful driving force. No religion is ever static, and when a faith is confronted with a problem like the one which has arisen on Rhapsody, viewpoints are subject to many forces which tend to move them about and spin them around. It seems to me that by taking Rhapsody’s exiles back home at this time, I may be able to inject several friends into important positions within the Church Hierarchy. This may be valuable.’
    â€˜You expect competition, then?’ I asked. ‘This ramrod that you mentioned?’
    â€˜The ramrod belongs to an organisation known as the Star Cross Combine. By no means as large or as influential as the Caradoc Company, who were so unfortunate and so troublesome in the matter of the Lost Star , but rich and ambitious nevertheless. I hardly think they will have taken precipitate action because of a rumour, but they might well have directed the captain of the ramrod to invest a few weeks or so in investigation. They might not, of course, and he might not be able to get there in time, even if they did. But that remains to be seen. A few hours invested in making friends can hardly do us any harm, whether Star Cross is involved or not’
    â€˜Suppose somebody else has become interested in the rumour?’ asked Johnny.
    â€˜They’ll be too late,’ Charlot predicted confidently. ‘Rumours reach New Alexandria very quickly. Star Cross’s advantage was purely positional. And in any case, no one else is likely to go so far out of their way hunting—as Grainger so aptly put it—wild geese.’
    He fell silent, and looked at us expectantly. There were no more questions. We seemed to be finished, for now.
    It seemed to be a moderately easy way to pass the time. A great deal easier than hunting up the Lost Star , anyhow. Law or no Law, what could possibly happen to me on Rhapsody? Not that it was my kind of world, of course. I have an irrational distaste for the faithful, no matter which particular breed they belong to. Naturally enough, the feeling tends to be mutual. Even the most easygoing of people tend to find me mildly offensive—to begin with, at least.
    I was suspicious of Charlot’s story, but not enough to worry me. I assumed as a matter of course that the old man knew more than he was telling us. But if I was to be tied to him for two years, I was rarely going to find circumstances where I could be one hundred percent sure of what was on his mind. The New Alexandrian mind is basically twisted, and Charlot had a few extra twists over and above the call of duty.
    All in all, I was pleasantly surprised that this operation seemed to offer little opportunity for disaster.
    â€˜When do you want to lift?’ I asked him.
    â€˜As soon as possible,’ he replied. ‘You can attend to your various needs while I talk to the people from Rhapsody. It will take them some time to collect together their belongings, but I think we should be ready to go by midnight.’
    â€˜It couldn’t possibly wait till morning, I suppose?’
    â€˜Midnight,’ he stated definitely.
    â€˜We’ll be ready,’ promised Captain delArco.
    The party broke up. Charlot exited at a fast walk. His hurry was showing. I guess he had a lot of sweet-talking to do. The Rhapsody crowd wouldn’t make friends easily. Not even in response to the carrot of a free ride home. But I had no doubt that Charlot could talk his way into their good books, given an hour or two in which to do it. By midnight, Rion