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back home, but she couldn’t
stand the empty house, so she went to the Merrie.
    She went to the Merrie every night, but it
wasn't very merrie. It was never more than half full, and people
often asked for melancholy songs. Rolo and Gyrth had left. Yas was
still around, perhaps because she seemed to be firmly attached to
Tom now, and he couldn't leave, being a policeman.
    So who was with Dan these days? From the look
of him the odd time he turned up at the pub, perhaps no one. He was
Anglia's sole defense when the blighters arrived. Perhaps she
should...
    But she felt too fragile now. She thought
she'd break under any pressure beyond even Dan Fixer's ability to
mend.

    ^^^^^^^^^^

    Jenny was playing a Scottish lament when she
saw the Urgent News! line scrolling across the bottom of the
screen. Ozzy switched the sound up and she stopped playing.
    "In a new move to put an end to the
blighters, all the fixers have been called to the front. Reports
from Hellbane U...."
    "What the heck's the front?" someone
asked.
    "Old Earth war term," replied Ozzy. "The
place where one army meets the other. Don't reckon it can be far
from here now."
    As if in answer a map popped up, showing the
red tide lapping at Anglia's borders.
    "Load of codswallop," Ozzy said, muting the
sound again, but then he added, "Perhaps it's time to close the
bloody dismal England."
    Jenny could only think that Dan was going to
leave.
    To fight blighters.
    And Gaia was losing the war.
    "Any idea where he is, Ozzy?"
    "Haven't seem him in a couple of days, luv.
Perhaps he's on his way."
    "No." Could she sense him, or was it wishful
thinking? She left her fiddle there on the bar and went in search.
Stupid, stupid, stupid to have kept her distance all these weeks!
He was probably right about nature. He’d told her, hoping for
understanding, and she’d walked away.
    The pubs were quiet, the music somber, and
Dan was nowhere to be found. Not in the square, not at his place,
not at the hospital. Not at his family's home. His mother and
brother looked as if they already had news of his death. Jenny
stopped outside the house, fighting tears. Dan had wanted something
from her, and she'd run as if he were a blighter. And now he was
going to "the front."
    Weeks ago he'd mentioned that the experts
from Hellbane U were going to help the local fixers in the fight.
Since then the blighters had only grown in strength. If the experts
had failed, what could simple fixers like Dan do?
    Die, that's what.
    She remembered an old war term. "Cannon
fodder."
    Perhaps he was already on the way, but she
wandered the streets looking for him, hoping against hope that
she'd have a chance to say something, do something to help before
he left.
    Eventually, she gave up, stopping to lean
against some railing. Then she realized they were the railings
around the Public Gardens -- the place where the one solitary
blighter had dared to pop up in Anglia.
    The perfume of herbs and flowers played
sweetly on the night air and she thought how strange it was that
all of this -- all the simulations of Earth humanity had created --
would survive when the people were ash.
     
     
     

Chapter 4
     
    She turned in through the wrought iron gates
and followed the wandering path toward the lake and the statue of
the little victim. And there, near the statue, stood Dan, tossing
stones into the water.
    Jenny paused, purpose tangling into
uncertainty. Perhaps he wanted to be alone. He'd have no trouble
finding company if he needed it.
    Then he turned and held out a hand.
"Jen."
    There was welcome in it, but there was more.
After a teetering moment, she went forward and put her hand in his.
"Are you going to have to go?"
    "I am going."
    "You're not called?"
    "I'm not sure there's anyone left to call
me."
    "The news...?"
    "I gave Angliacom that press release."
    He slid his hand free and went back to
tossing stones into the glassy water. Plop. Plop. Plop. Each stone
made a mesmerizingly slow arc into the water, as if the