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week.”
    “Sure,” I immediately reply. “Where will you
be needing extra surveillance?”
    “Near the harbor.” He lowers his voice.
“There have been some serious disagreements between the two parties
holed up at the temple. Samuel Senior’s group wants to tear it all
down, but the group headed by Phileas wants to reinstate the old
religion.”
    My jaw drops. “What? The old religion? Why
the deep do they want that?”
    My father pats the space next to him on the
bench, and I plunk down there. “Phileas thinks we have been
deceived,” he explains tiredly. “I mean, he understands that
Praed’s been lying to us all by stealing the votive offerings, but
he still believes we should wait for Annabelle. He says Tony has
lied to us to lead us astray. And I’m sorry to say there are many
people who agree with him.”
    “Those blind, stupid…” I fume. “How can they
possibly think that? They’ve seen the documents Tony brought
along! And what about that book from the temple with the child’s
drawings? Phileas is even more deluded than the Unbeliever leader
who killed Henry out of sheer stupidity. How many more people is he
willing to hurt over this?”
    Daryl puts his hand on my shoulder. “I’m
happy you’re not going along with all the madness,” he says
gravely, “but please don’t forget that the people here have
suffered quite a few blows to their safe, familiar world in the
past couple of days. And they all deal with it differently. It’s
our job to keep the peace and make sure no public property is
destroyed or people are hurt. Calling people names isn’t going to
help anyone.”
    “You’re right,” I admit reluctantly. Even
though I still feel the urge to call Phileas names for sticking his
head in the sand and hoping all problems will just go away. “You
want me to start tonight?”
    “That won’t be necessary. Besides, you’ve
been working all day. I expect you to report for duty at the docks
tomorrow night at ten.”
    “So why at the harbor?”
    “Some of Phileas’s followers have taken it
upon themselves to gather there with banners, chanting we should
put a stop to our shipbuilding activities. That it’s blasphemy to
build our own fleet to sail away. I want to keep an eye on
them.”
    I nod briefly. “You can count on me.”

6 – Alisa

    Slowly but steadily, we are building our own
fleet. Now that an angry mob regularly gathers on the quay in the
morning and stays put all day to shout abuse at the laborers, the
supervisors have started to schedule night shifts. At least that
allows them enough peace and quiet to focus on the work.
    I’m on duty from ten at night until five in
the morning. Every now and then, my colleagues and I also venture
out to the far ends of the harbor, but everything is quiet near the
light houses. Phileas has stationed his own people there to stop
the progressives from destroying them. It’s the only advantage of
the whole madness – Phileas is taking away some of our workload
that way.
    Ben is part of the night team. He works
without ever taking a break and doesn’t seem to socialize a lot
with his coworkers. Again, I wonder what he’s trying to hide from
by slaving away like that.
    One hot summer evening, I see him sitting all
by himself, his legs dangling over the edge of the docks. He rubs
his arm and looks unhappy, so I decide to stroll over and have a
chat. So far, he’s been fending me off whenever I wanted to talk,
always claiming he was too busy. That excuse isn’t going to work
this time, though.
    “Hey, Ben,” I greet him as cheerful as I can.
“You okay?”
    He glances sideways with a frown.
“So-so.”
    “Are you in pain?”
    “Yeah. I think I might have pulled a
muscle.”
    “Well, no surprise there. I’ve never seen a
person doing as many hammer strokes per minute as you.”
    He lets out an involuntary laugh. “I guess
you’re right,” he admits clumsily. “I work really hard.”
    “So? Is the supervisor pleased with