don’t think there’s anything we can do other than see how this goes,’ she said finally. ‘If he’s a whacko, some kind of radical nut, then he’ll trip himself up eventually. He’ll end up preaching something that someone doesn’t like. They’ll fall out over it and then I’ll have to step in to soothe some egos. Far better that, than I appear like some sort of brutal bitch dictator that they can all rally against. Right?’
‘And if he’s not?’
‘Not a religious whacko?’ Jenny shrugged. ‘Then we don’t have a problem, do we? As long as we’re all getting on nicely then I suppose we have a manageable problem.’
Dr Gupta nodded slowly. Walter was tight-lipped.
It was a plan of sorts, but not one she was entirely sure about.
Chapter 51
10 years AC
O2 Arena - ‘Safety Zone 4’, London
Maxwell paced slowly along the base of the perimeter wall, looking inward across the endless rows of plants. His modest kingdom, tended by hundreds of workers dutifully wearing their turquoise armbands. Under other circumstances, in a different time, some might have called this a work camp . . . perhaps even a concentration camp. But then, Maxwell mused, they’d have missed the point and judged it unfairly. This wasn’t a place to punish people or to annihilate a subset of the population. It was what the ruthless bloody business of survival tended to look like; some had to work the fields, some had to guard the walls, and some had to administrate.
Get used to it.
He shook his head.
‘So anyway,’ he said, aware that both the boys had been walking with him a while and were still none the wiser as to why he’d had them brought out here to tour the perimeter with him. ‘I’ve been doing some thinking since I spoke to you last. When was that? Two, three weeks ago?’
Jacob and Nathan looked at each other. They’d lost track of how many days they’d been here. Maxwell smiled; the Zone had that effect. He squatted down and examined a small bed of late-sprouting rhubarb stalks that they were experimenting with.
‘So you lads were telling me about your journey to London. That you didn’t see a great deal going on out there?’
‘We didn’t see no one, really, did we, Jay?’
Jacob shook his head. ‘Not really. Nothing anything like this size. There was a guy called Raymond . . . and those wild kids.’
Maxwell stroked his chin. ‘Hmm. See, I hoped there would be plenty of other groups like ours. After ten years, you know, I was hoping some of the smaller groups of survivors might have pooled together. That we’d start seeing village-sized groups emerging out there.’
Both boys shook their head. ‘Ain’t nothing like that,’ said Nathan. Maxwell shook his head sadly. ‘What a complete balls-up we made of things, eh?’
The boys looked at each other. Neither seemed to know what to say.
‘Well, it’s not your fault,’ sighed Maxwell, running a hand through the tight grey curls on his head. ‘You were just small boys back then. No, it was my bloody generation, we’re the ones that ballsed everything up. We got too busy chasing money . . . pffft.’
He let the stalk of rhubarb go and stood up. ‘Anyway,’ he continued, ‘so that got me thinking about the place you came from? On those gas rigs? It would make a great deal of sense for both our groups to hook up. To share resources, skills . . . that kind of thing. I mean, it seems like all we’ve got left is each other. Right?’
‘That’s right, Mr Maxwell,’ said Jacob.
‘You two seem like decent enough lads to me. You’ve behaved yourself over the last few weeks. Pulled your weight on the chores you’ve been given. You’re both bright lads, nice an’ polite. So I’m guessing you’ve been brought up by decent enough people. Not a bunch of crazies. Am I right?’
Nathan nodded his head. ‘They’re really nice people.’
‘All - what was it? - three hundred-and-whatever? Good men and women are they? Peaceful lot?’
‘Four hundred and fifty . . . or thereabout.’
‘Actually there’s hardly any men at all,’ added Jacob. ‘Mostly women and old people.’
‘Yeah,’ Nathan laughed self-consciously, ‘s’pose we was sort of the men, weren’t we, Jay?’
Maxwell nodded thoughtfully. ‘And who’s in charge there? Do you have some government official? An ex-Member of Parliament or something? I’m sort of hoping there’s something left of the government that I can hand over the reins to.’ Maxwell sighed and smiled wearily at the boys. ‘What