III. “…AS YOU MUST SURELY HAVE ANTICIPATED—”

Members of the Peaceguard place John in lockup.  A pair of inmates, Paoli and Stennis, recognize John and ask about the strange occurrences at his trial.

John recounts Japhet’s seditious testimony and the Captain’s hostile reaction.  As the gathered crowd reacted to the exchange, John noticed a tall man appear from thin air.  The visitor identified himself as a projection of the Martian Emil Lothrop.  The Captain ordered his officers to seize the intruder, but they failed to apprehend the apparition.  Offering his support for ARES, Lothrop delivered a speech lamenting America’s lost constitutional government and the distance grown between the country and its former research stations on Mars.