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Michael said slowly, ‘that anyone was doing work of that calibre in the Outlands.’
    I grinned without humour. ‘They’ve made very sure you hadn’t. It’s nice to know the City isn’t all powerful. Mel has a Norm clone. Maybe that clone can be used to repair the mindwipe damage. It’s worth a try.’
    ‘It would be,’ he said, ‘except for one thing. Mel is in the City. We might spread the infection taking her out.’
    I thought of Dr Meredith’s ‘boys’ — perhaps one would take the risk, would be prepared to go to the City and work there. And perhaps … I had a sudden vision of a new Forest: me and Neil and Michael and Mel, our minds all Linked together, almost like the old days.
    ‘Perhaps you could be restored too,’ I added.
    ‘Me?’
    ‘If it could be done with me, it could be done with you.’
    He was silent. I could almost feel the way his mind would be working behind the blank mask. We had been so close, once upon a time. Then he said, ‘No.’
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘Because the City needs me. I can’t take off — what, one month, two? while there’s a crisis. Or take the risk that it may not work either.’
    ‘But you’d be all the more capable of handling a crisis if you had your old abilities back.’ I held out the ultimate temptation. ‘With abilities like that you’d reach the top that much sooner.’
    The ghost of a grin. Yes, I knew Michael, but he knew me. ‘And what if we’re Proclaimed all over again? Maybe when this is over, sweetheart I’ll think about it. Meanwhile, monitor what you can. And take care.’
    The screen went blank.

chapter 12
    I sat by the empty screen. The sound of Elaine’s laughter came faintly from the living room. Theo was laughing too. ‘… learn knitting,’ I heard him say. ‘Booties can’t be hard.’
    How long had it been since Michael called me ‘sweetheart’? The old term of affection slipping out again. And, yes, I did love him still, though in a different way from my love for Neil. Loved Michael enough to be cold inside at the thought of him facing plague in the City.
    Loved Theo and Elaine enough to feel even colder at the thought of plague reaching here or Black Stump.
    There was no one Net that reached all Outlands utopias. Many utopias weren’t even Linked, either because of religious conviction or poverty, or a side effect of genetic engineering that had taken away the ability to Link. Some Nets used satellite transmissions and were potentially worldwide. Others operated in small local areas.
    No, there was no way to spread a warning through the entire Outlands. But I could try. And if the news spread to the City and caused the panic Michael was trying to avoid, tough shit. Yes, I still loved Michael. But I loved others more.
    The first call was to Black Stump. Black Stump had been my first non-Forest friends when I’d been exiled to the Outlands: rich in casual generosity, kids and not much else, they were possibly the most laid back utopia in theOutlands. I loved them dearly; had even considered living there, but more than twenty-four hours of chaos would have driven me insane. The chime belled on and on, so I thought that no-one was at the utopia’s main house, or near enough to receive the call signal. Then suddenly the screen brightened, and there was Ophelia’s face, fuzzy around the edges as every signal was from Black Stump, her grey hair even fuzzier, the laugh lines deepening as she recognised me.
    ‘Dan! It’s been ages! What have you done to your hair?’ She shoved a couple of dirty mugs away from the terminal.
    I’d forgotten about my cropped hair. ‘Had it cut.’
    ‘Looks awful,’ said Ophelia bluntly. ‘Let it grow again.’
    ‘I will. Ophelia, I’m sorry, I haven’t much time …’
    Something in my expression must have showed my anxiety. ‘What’s up?’ she said, suddenly sobering.
    ‘Plague in the city. Bad. Ten per cent survival rate. Flu-like symptoms, around twenty-one days’ incubation,