Sitting on the front of the car, Dorac tossed his cigarette butt over the edge of the Twisted Bridge and watched the glowing tip fall away into darkness.

'There's a rubbish bin over there, Landa.' Maddy pointed to the bin a few metres away.

'It's over there; I'm over here.'

The crowd was growing restless. The Sirian speaker had been replaced by several others in turn, and each had whipped the protesters into a higher state of excitement. Already the crowd was calling for a march rather than just a static protest on the bridge. Holographic films were playing in the air above their heads, detailing various atrocities by the Elite against the other races, Helot and Sirian, and the off-Earth colonists. Maddy watched one of them, a replay of the explosion aboard the Slowboat colonist ship Santa Maria some months ago. She had been in the Endeavour colony around Barnard's Star at the time. It had never been proven that the Elite had anything to do with the explosion—or the missile attack on Maddy's own home, the Slowboat Endeavour, ten years ago. But that didn't mean the blame for the events couldn't be laid on the Elite. Her father had died in the missile strike; the pain was still deep.

The police, both Sape and Sirian, had formed a cordon around the protest crowd to prevent them marching off before the scheduled time. Verbal abuse and taunting filled the night air.

'We're never getting through this,' said Hera Rani. She was a few metres away, leaning with her elbows on the railing of the bridge, regarding the crowd carefully. 'Let's walk.'

'What about the car?' Dorac eyed the other vehicles and their occupants who were also parked on the bridge, and who were in similar states of anxiety. 'I'm not leaving it to be damaged in some riot.'

'Stay with it, then. I'm going.' She pushed away from the railing and began to walk away from the vehicles and to skirt around the edge of the crowd. Dorac cursed and almost followed her, glanced at Maddy and slumped back onto the car.

'She gets like this,' he said, but Maddy knew that already.

At that moment the crowd moved. Forming a rough marching order, they activated yet more holos which began to scroll through messages and blare slogans that reverberated under the city's cover. Dorac stood up and indicated to Maddy to get into the car—they would be moving soon. He opened the door, but then paused.

'What's wrong?' she asked. This was no place to hang around, and it had been a long, hot day.

Dorac looked at his sister, elbowing her way through the crowd. The men gave way, but the women were more reluctant to let her through. There were several clans represented and Dorac could not see any other members of the Sasha clan.

'We can't let her wander off by herself,' he growled. 'She'll get into trouble. Come on.'

He stalked after Hera Rani. Maddy held onto the handle of the car door for a moment, wondering whether she would be safer hiding inside rather than following the big Sirian into the mob. But he gestured over his shoulder without turning around and she followed, hurrying to catch up before he reached the main throng.

'Stay close,' he muttered as they pushed into the crowd, which was trying to go the other way, marching across the Twisted Bridge towards the route the Nuncio would take to reach his hotel. A holovision display above their heads showed a news report of the official's arrival at the spaceport. A representative of the disgraced Chief had met him, but there had been few formalities before the Nuncio was bundled into his armoured car. A crowd of Sirians had been held back by police at the spaceport gates. The news report was in the Sirian language, of which Maddy knew only a few phrases, but the pictures were enough for her to see that tension was already high.

She clutched Dorac's belt as he ploughed through until they caught up with Hera Rani. The woman had reached the far edge of the marchers, who had almost crossed the bridge now back into town.

'We could make today fun,' Hera Rani said in Inglish. There was a dangerous glint in her eye.

Dorac scowled. 'I don't need to ask you what you mean.'

'How often do we get to see a Nuncio?'

'I don't even know what a Nuncio is.'

'It's a type of ambassador. Hundreds of years ago there was someone called the Pope, and he—'

'I didn't say I wanted to know. Let's go home.'

But there was no choice. Hera Rani had made her mind up, and it was Dorac Landa's job to see she didn't come to harm, or at any rate to act as physical back-up should she decide to enforce her feminine aggression. That meant Maddy had to follow along, because she couldn't go anywhere without a member of the Dorac family as escort. Such a restriction seemed unfair to her, given that dozens of Sape police had arrived in anticipation of the Nuncio's visit, and were out scouring the streets and enforcing order. What harm could she, one lone Sape, do that the Sirians could be afraid of?

'So what are you planning?' Dorac fished out a cigarette. Maddy glanced around. There was more room now the main crowd had passed on, but cars still insisted on driving across the re-opened bridge; they were being met by a mass of Sirian bystanders and gawkers who pushed along in the wake of the marchers.

'Let's get away from this lot first,' said Hera Rani.

They walked back to the car, Hera Rani leading. It would be safe enough to leave it parked where it was now most of the crowd had moved on. Theft was not something Sirians did to each other, even between clans. There was no honour in stealing, only in honest and open combat or inter-clan itsu.

Hera Rani consulted her fone which displayed the planned route of the Nuncio through the city. He was being taken to his hotel and would meet the Chief in formal circumstances tomorrow. Maddy tuned her own fone to the news station and activated the translator. There was coverage of the protests and a live feed of the procession of the Nuncio. It was a mystery to her why they just didn't go home and watch it on holo—they would get a much better view than in this crowd of Sirians all taller than herself.

But she knew complaints would be met by disdain from Hera Rani, and helpless submission to his sister's demands by Dorac Landa. She gripped his arm. 'Don't lose me, all right?'

He turned and smiled. 'Now why would I want to do that?' He slid his fingers along her arm until they brushed her hand. It wasn't an intimate gesture, just a friendly one. She managed to smile back.

They kept pace with the crowd as the fireworks continued to explode just under the roof of the city, spelling out slogans and forming pictures of Sirian culture in a display of colonial solidarity in the face of the Homo sapiens' intrusion onto their planet. Most of the onlookers were still well-behaved. A few brandished their daggers, but Maddy couldn't understand the significance of the complicated passes and gestures they made with the blades. She wanted to ask Dorac about it, but he was too focused on his sister in front of him.

Leaving the Twisted Bridge they passed into one of the main streets on the Nuncio's motorcade route. Hera Rani pointed to a small area where the crowd was less. There were others of the Sasha clan there, a woman and several men. They stared at Maddy when approached and she greeted them as a humble Sape grateful for their benevolence had to do. The words were right but her accent, as always, was lousy.

'Insi negāna retush, Sasha-matu.'

The phrase meant she placed herself at their service. As if she had a choice. They nodded, but one of the younger men had a grin on his face as if he doubted Maddy's ability to be of any service whatsoever.

Hera Rani shoved in front of the Sasha men, who fell back at her presence, and stood beside the woman. Dorac slid in next to the men. The two females immediately fell into a long conversation in their own language. Maddy still had her fone's translator on but didn't bother listening to its verbalisation of their talk. They didn't look at her at all.

'Electric barriers,' said Dorac. 'Nasty.'

Maddy looked at the bright yellow plastic stanchions that lined the street in front of them. They seemed harmless enough, just short pillars set up at intervals, topped by warning signs that instructed people in both Inglish and Sirian not to pass between them. Doing so, she knew, would activate electric arcs that wouldn't kill, but would certainly make life uncomfortable.

'Paranoids, too,' said Dorac, and even he respected the robotic guards that were spaced at intervals along the Nuncio's route. Police had appeared, probably reinforcements that had followed the crowd from the bridge, and prowled inside the electric barriers. The Sape cops had their hands on their gun butts—were they spoiling for a fight? The Sirian police were more practical with their daggers and truncheons, and no less clear about their determination to keep order.

Crushed between Hera Rani and Dorac Landa, Maddy was more focused on trying to breathe than gawping at Nuncio Xu Chan. One of her hands was still hooked into Dorac's belt, so if he suddenly took off he'd be forced to drag her along.

She instructed her fone to tune into the holovision of the motorcade. It appeared on the fone's screen, a big black car surrounded by motorcycles and more paranoids.

The throng around her grew even more restless as the Nuncio's car approached. Warning lights on top of each electric barrier illuminated and an AI voice announced that any attempt to pass between the stanchions would be met with reprisal. The whine of the barriers was drowned out by the rising din of the crowd. Hera Rani shouted something in Sirian. The other Sasha female laughed and drew her dagger.

Maddy peeked out around Dorac's left arm. He had shuffled forward a little, and she was pressed up against his back by the crowd behind. The road was covered in thrown objects: rocks and other bits of rubbish. More stones whined overhead from the people behind. The riot squad retreated behind the barriers as the AI continued to blare. A paranoid, weapons aimed at the crowd, marched past on its triple-jointed legs. For a second its gun swivelled to cover the Sasha group, but it was just picking random targets as it monitored activity. Maddy hoped that there was some human brain directing its actions; they were called paranoids for a good reason.

'Here he comes!' someone shouted. The roar of the crowd rose as two paranoids on wheels rolled into view, with police on motorcycles flanking the large armoured vehicle that followed. The Nuncio was taking no chances. More rocks pelted the car as it rolled along

'Welcome to Eridu!' chuckled Dorac.

There was no one visible through the heavily-tinted windows of the car. As it reached their position, the roar of the crowd swelled until it was all Maddy could hear—even the fireworks still bursting overhead and the warning sound of the barriers were drowned out as hundreds of Sirian voices rose in contempt.

The car passed by, as did the motorcycles and paranoids that followed in its wake. Behind the vehicles, the crowd was still held back by the electric stanchions, but they pushed against the riot squad, who dug their heels in. A paranoid panned its gun across the face of the crowd, which didn't seem put off by this aggressive gesture.

The car continued up the street and the crowd's protest began to subside. Rocks ceased to hurtle through the air.

'Well,' said Dorac. 'I'm almost disappointed.'

Maddy shut her eyes as a fierce light and sound erupted from the car. She was protected from the explosion by the line of riot squad and barriers, and the main press of the crowd, although she still felt it as a palpable force. Even Dorac was knocked against her.

They both fell, Dorac landing on top of Maddy, who cried out as his weight pinned her down. Most of the crowd also dropped, automatically covering their heads. With her eyes shut, Maddy heard several large thumps and felt the impact of people falling to the ground around her. When she opened her eyes all she could see was Dorac on top of her.