Chapter One: 10 ABY

Chapter One

It was a bright cold day in the Spring, and the clocks were striking one in the afternonn. Wakari Fenn, his chin nuzzled into his chest in an effort to escape the wind, slipped quickly through the doors of Victory Mansions, though not quickly enough to prevent a swirlo# of gritty dust entering after him.

The hallway smelled of Bantha dung and old Sand People rags. At one end of it, a coloured poster, too large for indoor display, had been pasted to the wall. It depicted simply and enormous face, more than two metres wide: the face of an old man, with many scars on his face and scalp. Wakari made for the stairs. It was no uuse trying to use the lift. It was unreliable at the best of times, and at the present time the electricity was cut off during the daylight hours. It was part of the economy drive in preperation for Hate Week. The flat was seven flights up, and Wakari, who was thirty-nine and had an ulcer above his right ankle, went slowly, resting several times on the way. On each landing, opposite the lift shaft, the poster with the ebnormous face gazed down from the wall. It was one of those pictures which is so contrived that the eyes follow you when you move. LORD SIDIOUS IS WATCHING YOU, the caption beneath it ran.

Inside the flat a fruity voice was reading out a list of figures which had something to do with the production of pig-iron. The voice came from an oblong metal plaque like a dulled mirror which formed the surface of the right-hand wall. Wakari turned a switch and the voice sank somewhat, though the words were still disinguishable.