Chapter 9 - The Saracen's Head

 Part 1 - Jane dreams about Mark meeting with the Head and reports her dream to the leadership at St. Anne's.

Part 2 - Mark awakes in terror. He resolves to write to Jane to come to N.I.C.E. Hardcastle finds him while he's struggling to write this letter and threatens them both if he doesn't. Mark decides to leave at once. He has a disturbing encounter with Deputy Director Whithers, who seems to be able to be in two places at once, and resigns himself to his fate, returning to the Belbury campus.

Part 3 - MacPhee gives Jane a skeptic's account of Ransom's adventures and their current situation.

Part 4 - The company at St. Anne's (excluding Jane) discuss their situation. MacPhee demands a plan of action. Ransom says that their priority must be stopping N.I.C.E. from obtaining what is underneath Bragdon Wood.

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Happy Independence Day, everyone. Increasingly, this day grows bittersweet for me. I fear I may outlive this country, and I've come to understand that our influence on the world for some time has not been what most ordinary Americans would applaud. Our government has become a tool of globohomo.

But it is still my country, and I still love it for what it was, for what I grew up in.

Anyway, God be with you. I look forward to your thoughts on this chapter.