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large,” I said.
    “Oztrala has a relatively large group of survivors,” Calvin added.
    “You said that was a long way away,” I argued.
    “Indeed,” the computer programme agreed.
    “Then where, Calvin?” I asked. “If we’re dealing with a fourth settlement possibly on a par with Urip, Merrika and Wánměi, where would they have come from?”
    “I do knot know, Trent,” the Shiloh said.
    “They looked like us,” Alan offered. “Well, like the D’awans.” His gaze found Irdina again. I stared at the woman who had caught my best friend’s eye, took in the dark caramel skin, the short, thick black hair, the round pools of chocolate that stared back. Irdina had no issues with giving what she got. The woman was a force of nature. Disgruntled. Wild. Violent.
    Once Mahiah. Once of Wánměi. Similar skin tone to a D’awan.
    “Cal said the Mahiah originated in that city across the water from Hillsborough,” I mused. “If the Mahiah came from there and the Anglisc came from here, where did the D’awans come from?”
    “Or the Wáikěinese?” Alan added.
    “Our nation is a multicultural one,” I agreed. “We all originated elsewhere.”
    “So those Lunnoners we fought originated elsewhere too?”
    “They weren’t Anglisc. They weren’t even Uripean, and Mikhail looked a lot like Lena, and you don’t get much more Anglisc than her pale skin and fair hair. So…”
    “So,” Alan agreed.
    “We’ve got a new nationality,” Calvin concluded cheerfully. “I’ll begin a search based on your hypothesis,” he added. “The D’awan of our nation came from somewhere, and wherever that is will undoubtedly be where we’ll find these Lunnoners too.”
    “Good,” I said, standing up in order to stretch. “But it still doesn’t answer the question of whether there are more out there on Lunnon’s streets or not.”
    “Would it matter if there are?” Alan queried, coming to his feet beside me. “The base is well protected. Cal has seen to that.”
    We watched the Merrikan soldiers reporting to Lena’s father, as he sat at the head of a long table issuing commands.
    My eyes found Lena’s. She was watching me. As soon as our gazes locked, she looked away.
    She was also dressed as though she was about to head out with a Cardinal scout team.
    Motherfucker!
    “Care to test the waters?” I asked Alan without removing my eyes from Lena’s Cardinal team. Alan’s gaze swung across the room to where I was looking and he chuckled.
    “Who’re we testing, Trent? Cal’s defences? Or Lena’s?”
    Good question. But as I couldn’t spank her arse, I’d sure as hell ride it. One way or the other.
    Lena thought she could forget me? Not a chance, baby.
    Time to remind the Elite.

Six

Go, Go, Go
Lena
    T he streets were silent . Like death. As if the scars they wore were the city’s soul. Forever irreparably damaged. Whatever had happened here had been catastrophic. But it was clear it hadn’t happened all at once.
    Towards the west we knew the damage had been grievous. Not much existed beyond a twenty kilometre radius of where we stood. We’d come in via the river, seen what was left of a once proud civilisation. This city was enormous. The trip to where we docked took hours.
    Dodging debris, crawling past skeletal remains of a once strong industry. Silently paying our respects to a fallen nation. Lunnon was the capital city of a country once called Anglan. The nation our Anglisc came from.
    I am Anglisc. My ancestors once lived here. I wanted to ask my father so many questions about them, about us, about a world before Wánměi, but even if I could allow him in to that degree, there was no guarantee he would remember.
    Chew-wen’s Serenity Tabs had seen to that. Complacency at the price of erasure. We threw away so much. Even our history.
    I stared up at a crumbling structure, took in the intricate details carved into pale stone. Sharp edges and hard angles. Pointed arches and tall spires. Tiny spikes and