Free The Foundling Saga: Revelation by S D Bowring

away, which allowed The Scouts to assume that they were dealing with a particularly resourceful Outsider. He was known to them through his occasional but impressive trading of useful items.
    They could wait until another Arpo trading Sunday. However there was the possibility that neither might re-attend. The decoy exercise employed by the Outsiders suggested caution on their part. This was a concern as it implied the Outsiders here had activated what might be seen as the First Act of Resistance. The Scouts and their sponsors would not want the Outsiders to engage in the Second Act of Resistance, which implies taking direct action against the Londoners and the Regents.
    The Regents would not want an open escalation of tension between them and the Outsiders.
    Nevertheless, the Scouts had been set loose and they would surely conclude their task of locating the young man known as Keller. Whether they then acted on the discovery depended on circumstances when they found him. Their remit was to identify his ‘stock’ i.e. to confirm that he wasn’t a true Outsider, determine his health and then either leave him to get on with his life or intervene.
    If the Scouts found that they didn’t need to intervene, then the most positive result would be that their quarry never even know that he had been investigated. They speculated that the Outsiders would have been aware of the troopers following them on the day but there was little they could do about that. At least nothing further had occurred to increase suspicion.
    If the Scouts found that they did have to intervene, then they would need to do this without direct proof of the authorities being involved.
    Having determined from the clandestine listening operation that the two had left for the North East, the Scouts rested until night fall and then headed for the next town in that direction. This was a flaw in the apparent plan of the two Outsiders. The North East, from their home, held few towns. However, those towns followed a linear path away from the fields following an old highway. Had they travelled in any other direction, it would have required that the Scouts put more resources into the search. Furthermore, they were unlikely to travel directly east as these led too close to two of the nearest devastated cities, a pair of cities known as the Wiches. These cities were surrounded by shallow lakes and parts of both cities were now permanently underwater.
    During their listening operation one of the Scouts had picked up ‘haz-suits’ being mentioned in relation to provisions and kit. They hadn’t picked up any other details of what provisions they were carrying or how long they were likely to be away for. They determined that the carrying of haz-suits was cautionary. It was unlikely to signify that the two Outsiders were going to risk movement towards a known contamination area.
    The two Scouts were joined later by two others several miles north east at a small uninhabited site known as Bradfield. They then set off for Saint Edmunds, which was the next most reasonably-sized ruined town. On the outskirts of this town, they set up their sophisticated hand held tools and were able to determine from a range of readings that there were no humans in the town. They moved on.
    They rested that night close to the side of the road. Their monitoring tools were set only to alert them to human indications as they rested ready for the next day.
    At this time, the two Outsiders were into the second day exploring their ruined town, unaware of the Scouts’ activity further south.
    Waking to a sudden downpour, the four Scouts decamped after a short break for food and to plan the day.
    They arrived at the larger ruined town of Thetford. This was once a town of 75,000 souls just before the war and evacuated in haste. Many of the population went to large cities further afield only to perish - mainly through starvation, disease or having the misfortune to arrive in a city targeted by the enemy for