A cascade of ice water bucketed down on Ruth as she slept. She jerked awake, screaming, and bumped stupidly into the roof of her cage.

'Wake up. Boss wants to see you.'

Ruth rubbed her eyes with shivering hands, just about making out the blurry outline of Nate standing outside the cage door. As her vision cleared she saw him swipe a keycard along the doorpad and swing the door open, picking up her vaglock chain and giving it a tug. She winced at the sharp pang in her crotch and struggled to the front of the cage. Nate kept on tugging, impatient to get moving.

'Let's not keep the Boss waiting,' he urged her as she jumped down a full cage-height to the cold floor below, her small feet touching the ground with a slap.

Nate turned his back to her, vaglock chain in hand, and tugged her in his wake. She folded her hands behind her back and followed him, catching the eye of Mindy, the girl who lived in the cage beside her, all full of trepidation at the sight of Nate.

Ruth bowed her head. After all the torture Wilkes had inflicted on her, it seemed crazy that she could still be afraid of anything, and yet she was afraid of Nate. Word of what happened to the escapees had reached every woman's ear in the compound by now. Half of them did not know who Nate was to begin with, just another recruit, another pair of boots to the girls on the bottom rows, a kevlar-clad chest to the girls in the middle and a sweet-looking, cute face to the girls on the top.

None of it had really shocked Ruth. Torture, mass killing, double-crossing, it was all textbook Bluenorth. It was only when she heard that Nate was once Alyssa's boyfriend that she had felt real fear towards the man. He represented an absolute change, a total deviation from the world Ruth had once known. She had to smile as she remembered writing once that heterosexual relationships were only another semblance of patriarchy. The irony was not lost on her; she would kill to return to a world like that.

'Don't slack!' Nate snapped at her, giving her a sharp tug on the short chain.

She gasped from the pain, surprised how bad it still felt. Wilkes had tested a new drug on her, some kind of serum that stops the nerves from becoming too numbed and prevents women from passing out. It was working; only a week ago she would barely have felt Nate's punishing yanks on the metal bulb buried in her womanhood.

Ruth kept herself as close to Nate as possible as they passed out of the caging area and into the plushly-carpeted, wood-panelled hallways that looked less like a high-security compound and more like a regal office block. Ruth knew her way but followed Nate all the same. As much as she feared him, she could not help but be curious; what had they said to make a sweet, kind boy like that become such a monster?

The door to the men's common room was open. Ruth peered inside and saw a group of guys playing videogames while a couple of others played pool. In the corner, hanging in a medieval gibbet, were two women, covered in whipmarks. Another girl was knelt inside a tiny dog-cage sucking a guard's cock between the bars, the sounds of her sucking echoing in time with the bleep of the videogame and the knock of pool-cue-on-ball. What crime those girls must have committed to pull common-room duty, Ruth could not imagine.

Ruth's legs moaned a little, relieved to be out of the cage and able to stretch. She look long, deliberate strides to pull on the muscles. Nate gave her a sudden yank into Wilkes' office area. The 'Boss' himself was, for once, not seated behind his grand desk, but out on the balcony with his feet up, enjoying a glass of wine and a cigar.

'Thanks, Nate.' He said, turning his thin face around to see Ruth. 'Put her in the carry-cage.'

Nate looked at Ruth for a few seconds, eyebrows raised and mouth a straight horizontal line.

'Are you deaf?' He asked.

She shook her head, shuddering, and got onto all fours, clambering into the carry cage. It was really just an enlarged version of the type used to carry dogs or cats, a plastic housing with a metal door. Nate locked her in and showed her the key, placing it in his own pocket.

Now all Ruth could see was a patch of beige carpet and the foot of the door. She heard Wilkes get up from his deckchair and shake Nate's hand as he came into the office. The two men then sat down on opposite sides of the great desk.

'You met with the Arrowheads?' said Nate.

Ruth heard the sound of wine being poured.

'I did. They were very interested in our decision.' Wilkes sniffed his glass favourably. 'You should count yourself very, very lucky. If they had found you... well, let's just say my generosity better not go ignored.'

'It won't.' Nate said fervently. Ruth thought she could hear his foot tapping nervously on the carpeted floor. 'Sorry it was such a hassle for you.'

'It was nothing of the sort. I know those women would still have done what they did, with or without your help. In the end I managed to convince their... what do they call him? Commander?'

'Chairman.' Said Nate, with a hint of scorn.

'That's it. God, why do they insist on inventing a new language for every damn collective on the planet? Anyway, I spoke to this man. I told him what it all came down to was destruction of Compound property. He agreed, and so after that it was all about establishing what that particular crime should mean, in our new world.'

'I didn't intend to set a precedent.'

Wilkes laughed. 'You think you're the first? Hardly a day goes by that one of our customers doesn't overdo it in the Rec Rooms. Every time we just slap on a fine and tell them to be more careful. But now, with the Arrowheads bringing in every feminist uprising and cracking down on women's groups across the country, we already have more women than cages.'

'Maybe you should be thanking me?' Nate said, clearly attempting a joke. The silence that followed told Ruth it had not gone down well.

'Don't push me, boy.' Wilkes said quietly. 'I don't want this to become a trend. Yes, you acted out of revenge, out of passion, but you also acted without thinking. The first two I understand, the others I cannot forgive. You could have jeopardised this entire operation. What if even one of those girls had escaped? What if Detail hadn't swung by an hour later and cleared up your mess? What of the manpower, time and resources you have made me waste sorting out your little revenge-fantasy?'

Ruth smiled to herself, enjoying hearing Wilkes put the little bastard in his place. She wondered if it made Nate feel that little bit more humiliated to know a woman was listening in to this entire conversation. Probably, she thought.

'Thanking you is the last thing on my mind,' Wilkes said sharply, 'you have embarrassed me in front of these chumps called Arrowheads. You have made me look as if I don't have proper control over my staff. You have given the Arrowheads every justification to claim that it is them, and not Bluenorth, that should be running this operation. Do you understand?'

'Yessir.' Nate cleared his throat awkwardly.

'One more let-down,' Wilkes breathed through his nostrils hard, 'just one more, Nate, and our agreement is over. I don't need your aunt's deal, not any more. From now on you stand on your own merit.'

'Yes, Sir. I will do Sir.' Nate paused, and then said, 'I am sorry Sir.'

'That's enough on that. We need to talk about other things.'

'Yes Sir.'

'Our Network detected a small convoy moving across the border from Mexico at close to midnight last night. Preliminary reports suggest they were Nova Femen.'

Nate's foot started thumping again. Ruth's breath caught in her throat. Millie...

'How or why they are back in the United States is irrelevant at this point. We need to apprehend them before they commit another atrocity as they did last year. Unfortunately they seem to have more advanced technology than their last incarnation did, as they managed to set off a Distortion Beacon just as we were zeroing in on them. By the time it disappeared, they had done the same. Luckily for us, I have a hunch as to where they're going.'

'Sir...' Nate said, his voice cracking from disuse, 'How did they know to let off the beacon? I mean, the only people who know about the Network are... shit, could they have an informant?'

'That will be all.' Wilkes cut across him. 'We move out for Houston tonight. Pack up everything in my office and get it on the Airship.'

They both left the office, leaving Ruth alone with nothing but the sound of a ticking clock and the wind blowing through the open door to the balcony. Something Wilkes had said had sparked a memory.

Two days ago every woman in the compound was marched out of her cage and into the courtyard en masse to watch a live broadcast from the President. It had been crushing, to say the least. She still remembered every word.

'Now is the hour in which true leaders are needed. The time of weakening, of irrational thought and of ineffective movement is done. We are now on the cusp of retrieving our greatness from the ashes of the fallen idol, equality. I have today signed an executive order, named the Female Control Act, which will require all females to undergo screening and vetting for potential affiliations with feminism or any other such egalitarian movement. I ask that Congress swiftly pass the several amendments to our Constitution relating to the issue of females, and will oversee the management of these as they arrive.'

That had been the worst part of all of this so far; knowing not just that Ruth would never escape, but that it was over, truly over, for feminism, for equality, and indeed for the life women had once known. The riots had happened as predicted, and every one shut down, wrapped up and the protestors, rioters and anyone with a vagina within eyeshot arrested, trucked to a Compound, vaglocked and caged. Everyone knew about the Compounds now, even if they were still not officially mentioning them. Men were visiting their wives, daughters, girlfriends and sisters in Compounds. Some tried to help them escape, others just accepted it is how it is. Neither made a difference. Bluenorth, and whoever this Arrowhead society were, had done it beautifully.

But that was not the memory Wilkes had sparked. She was thinking now to the end of the broadcast, just before they had shut off the projector and herded the women back to their cages. It had been in the voice of a newsreader, probably not intended to be heard at all by female ears.

'The President will be hoping that, by the time he returns from Houston in three days' time, his executive order will have become law.'

Ruth smiled again, and curled up on the floor of the carry-cage.

Millie really was a clever girl.