"There"s at least kilo of fish and a kilo of mixed vegetables and fruit for you and each of your men," Samir told him. "Plus an extra kilo of both just for you. After all, you"re their leader."

As he had hoped for, the bribe successfully stopped the sergeant from trying to haggle for more. Arjun Varma turned round and signaled to his driver, who had respectfully stayed behind and stood by the parked jeep still half-full of Madan and Kali"s belongings. Unpacking it was taking a lot of time, maybe because Madan was the only one doing it. Kali stayed hidden in the room Samir had allocated to them, most likely sunk in depression. Moving into a raw concrete box from a home they"d presumably made comfortable for themselves had to be a downer.

The sergeant and his driver were much more efficient. They each grabbed a handful of the bulging shopping bags and plastic bundles that contained the food imported from the New World, and carried them all to the jeep in one trip. They started shouting at Madan to hurry up the moment he appeared in the house entrance next to Samir. Samir was glad of the intervention: he expected Madan to have a lot to say to him, and judging by the look on Madan"s face most of it wasn"t going to be nice.

The sergeant came up to Samir and extended his hand for a handshake.

"I"ll see you on Friday morning, then," he said, pumping Samir"s hand up and down.

"Yes."

"You"re sure it won"t take longer than an hour?"

"That"s with the safety margin added," Samir said. "We should be done in half the time. Now, listen. I want to ask you something."

"Yes?"

"You said you were confiscating implant kits and hiber beds practically every day."

"Well, yes," said the sergeant uncomfortably.

"You"ll all need female companions over there. I don"t care who they are. They may be your wives, they may be your lovers. But you"ll all need women. That means sixteen implants, and extra hiber beds, maybe one for each couple. It"s still a lot."

Arjun Varma was grinning when Samir fell silent. The idea of having a female companion of his choice in the New World was very appealing.

"You want me to keep back a few?" he said. "For our own private use?"

"You can put it like that," said Samir. He would have preferred the sergeant to put it in another way. He didn"t like the suggestion that he and the sergeant had become equal partners.

"Done," the sergeant said. "It will be a couple of implant kits at a time, you understand."

"Of course."

"I"ll see you on Friday, and I"ll bring my men."

"Good."

"Will you have some food for us?"

"That will be up to your own selves in the New World," Samir said. "They"ll get the tools to fish and gather wild foods right away, and they"ll be directed to the right spots. After that, it will up to them - or you, however you prefer it."

"Do you think they"ll be able to send some by the evening?"

"Oh, for sure," Samir said. "Twelve hours equals five full New World days."

"Good," said the sergeant. "When should we bring our women?"

"Sunday should be all right."

"Sunday, fourth of March?"

"Yes. We"ll talk more about it when I see you again."

The sergeant walked back to the jeep with Madan, who had just reappeared to unload the final batch of his belongings. Samir quickly retreated to the house and began putting his room in order. It stank of fish and there were plenty of fish scales and plant rubbish on the floor where all the food had arrived. Samir could have told the kids to do the cleaning - he"d put them all in the next room. But they were all sleeping so sweetly on the silvery mats, sleeping and smiling. And anyway he wanted to appear busy for as long as possible, to put off the inevitable conversation with Madan.

To his surprise, Madan didn"t jump on him with recriminations the moment he"d completed unloading the jeep. He stayed in his room with Kali: Samir caught s.n.a.t.c.hes of conversation when they raised their voices, then they both fell silent. Samir had the unpleasant thought that Madan and Kali were busy compiling a list of complaints and accusations. Why was he feeling so guilty? It was infuriating.

He concentrated on tidying the room, with growing determination to move the launch pad in the New World at the earliest opportunity. There were four large rooms on the ground floor of his house, all connected by a wide hallway in the center. The largest room was occupied by himself and Rani; the second largest contained the five kids they"d recruited into their colony. Then there was Madan and Kali, which left one room empty.

Samir decided he"d turn that room into a receiving platform for goods imported from the New World. The launch platform would just have to be moved slightly, and made larger as well. They would be importing at least a ton of food every month, and hopefully much more.

Just two more days to go, and then - March the first! On that day, the race to colonize the New World would officially begin. From what the sergeant had told him, there would be many enthusiastic colonizers. Samir frowned, and decided that he would pay a visit to the Colonial Office the next morning, bearing a bundle of food. There could be a horde of people storming the Colonial Office when it began selling colonization licenses. It was wise to ensure preferential treatment ahead of time.

Having made his plans for the immediate future, Samir drew a deep breath and went to talk to Madan and Kali. Their room did not have a door, yet: instead, a length of sacking hung from two nails hammered in over the doorway.

Madan and Kali were both asleep on hiber beds. They"d eaten the food Samir had left for them - a big bowl of rice and fish curry. They didn"t look so unhappy any more. Samir had no desire to wake them up and listen to recriminations about their living conditions. He went outside instead, and inspected his vegetable patch the best he could - it was night. Even then, he could tell the kids were doing a good job of caring for it. They"d weeded it thoroughly, and tilled the soil and watered the plants.

However, his vegetable patch was much too small now. He really needed to do something about his neighbors cultivating their own little plots on what was now his land. He was reminded of his earlier plan to enlist all of them as colonists, and frowned. The he went back into the house and got the ladder the workmen had brought that day and climbed to the upper floor of the house.

He"d hidden his stash of implant kits and other cube items atop the walls of one of the upper rooms, split up into a mult.i.tude of bundles, small enough to stay concealed from an observer standing on the floor. There was no ceiling: the outside walls ended abruptly where they met the roof beams.

Everything was there, wrapped in the clear plastic from the roll Samir had stolen a long time earlier from his workplace. That clear plastic had been his undoing. It had allowed Arjun Varma to recognize what Samir had hidden when Samir had simply dumped everything in a room corner on the upper floor. He hadn"t suspected someone would be inspecting his house through binoculars from a nearby rooftop.

Samir unwrapped his secret stash, and counted the implant kits. He still had twenty eight. Sixteen of those would needed for the soldiers and their women; an extra two for Sunil and his wife. That would leave ten. He wrapped everything up again and hid it away. Then he returned downstairs and started worrying about Rani. She"d been coming home increasingly late from the market, but even then it was well past the time she should be back.

Almost as soon as he"d thought it, he heard the rattle of her bicycle on the lane and she entered the house a moment later, pushing her bike - they kept their bicycles in their room even though they were immobilized with chains and padlocks. Someone could fancy a new chain or lamp or mudguard.

Rani had taken a lot of goods that day, and she brought over a hundred thousand rupees from the market: she told Samir prices were tripling every day. She also said that she"d lined up another couple of kids - a boy and a a girl - as candidates for colonists. Samir held up a hand when he heard that.

"A lot has happened," he told her. "But eat first, and then I"ll tell you about it."

"Twenty new people," she said, when Samir has finished speaking. "Are you insane? We"ll have to feed twenty new people and import a ton and a half of food every month. Don"t you see that"s mutually exclusive?"

"No," Samir said, "It"s not. They"ll all have to find their own food and generate a surplus, too. It"s not going to be difficult. We have our second rice harvest coming up, and this time around we can afford to eat some. The goats are multiplying like crazy. And Neil has come across a big herd of Nilgai antelopes. This boy has a special talent for tracking animals. We"ll send him to lead the soldiers on a hunt, they"ll bring back plenty of meat, you"ll see. Soldiers are specially trained to kill all sorts of living things, correct?"

"Maybe not with the kind of bows and arrows we"ve got."

"They"ll learn."

"I hope so. You"re sure Madan and Kali are asleep?"

"Yes."

"And the children?"

"Yes. They"re all in the New World."

They looked at each other in silence for a while and Rani thought: he"s getting really dumb because of all those responsibilities and worries. Should I make the first move?

But she didn"t have to. Samir finally understood what her eyes were telling him.

"Oh, Rani," he said, and reached out for her.

They started kissing.

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