Chapter 5 - Elasticity and Chapter 6 - The Fog

Chapter 5 - Elasticity

Part 1 - Mark returns to N.I.C.E. to clearly establish his position. He is rebuffed by Steele and Whithers, then given an assignment by Hardcastle to write a series of articles rehabilitating the reputation of the executed Alcasan.

Part 2 - Mark has an appointment with the deputy director. He still fails to get any direct answers. He learns is old job is in jeopardy and desperately tries to patch things up with Bracton College. He crosses paths with Feverstone again, who callously rebuffs him.

Part 3 - Jane has lunch with the Dennistons. She is invited to join the group that is coalescing at St. Anne's. She turns them down, but offers to continue to share with them the information from her dreams. They warn her that there ultimately is no neutrality in this fight, and she will wind up with one side or the other.

Chapter 6 - The Fog

Part 1 - Mark pleads with the deputy director to remain with N.I.C.E. He is allowed to do so on much reduced terms, and still with no clear idea of his position or responsibilities.

Part 2 - N.I.C.E. continues its takeover of Edgestow. The people are confused and unable to effectively respond. Mark begin his propagandist work. Bracton holds Hingest's funeral, which is marred by the crude shouting of the N.I.C.E. workmen outside.

Part 3 - Mark joins the inner circle in the library. He is assigned to write up the events of a planned riot before the riot actually occurs. Although he is initially shocked by the idea, he quickly accedes so as not to stand out.

Part 4 - Mark writes his assigned articles giving the N.I.C.E.'s spin on the riots they created. He finds himself intoxicated by his own power, and entirely loses sight of the moral objections he once had.

Part 5 - Jane dreams of being in a stone pit with a dead man on a slab. She senses that someone is coming down to join her whom she should do reverence. Upon waking, she returns to the town of Edgestow and crosses paths with one of the malevolent men from her dreams. Immediately and instinctively, Jane flees Edgestow to join the decent people at St. Anne's.

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I must say that doing these chapter summaries is still a bit difficult because, at this stage of the book, so little is actually happening yet. I hope you are all finding it entertaining and perhaps even prophetic. I look forward to your thoughts.