Rob Randall learns to cope quite well with life at his new school, but then some unexpected problems arise in the form of his friend and schoolmate Mike Gifford's attempts to recruit him into a revolutionary group.
Changing places
Rob's arrival in the County is responsible for a big change in Mike's attitude towards the Conurbs and their inhabitants. Up to this point his view of the other side has always been the typical aristocratic one of denigration and dismissal:
“Like everyone else in the County he knew a little about the Conurb: enough to be contemptuous of it. It was the place of the mob, where people dashed around in electrocars, crowded together like sardines, listened to raucous pop music, watched holovision and the bloodthirsty Games - for the most part watched the Games on holovision.
It was the place where everyone ate processed foods and liked them, where there were riots and civil disturbances, where no one knew how to behave properly, how to dress or exchange courtesies, how to speak English even. It was the place one knew existed and, apart from thanking God one did not have to live there, preferred to forget.”
Rob's personality and his achievements in his new life cause Mike to revise his opinions and think along different lines. He asks Rob many questions about his earlier life, the people he knew and the Conurbs. He sounds Rob out on the subject of possible changes in the relationship between the Conurbs and the County. Rob sees nothing wrong with the existing system that keeps them divided, and even if there were areas for improvement he thinks that no one could do anything about it. Even if something could be done, would the County want hordes of Conurbans pouring in and ruining everything?
Rob, whose perspective has also greatly changed, says something worthy of the old Mike:
“If they did come they would make a pretty unpleasant mess of things, wouldn't they? Sixty millions of them...with holiday camps and electrocars and community singing and riots when they got drunk...”
“Not all of them, of course. A few, perhaps.”
“There's no such thing as a few in the Conurbs,” Rob said. “They aren't happy unless they're all doing the same thing at the same time.”
So while Mike has decided that the plebs and proles are not all bad, Rob has adopted the viewpoint of a patrician!
Rob was always slightly detached from his fellow Conurbans; his love of reading set him apart. His ideas started to change when he was still at the hated boarding school after he realised that the contemptuous attitude of his fellow Conurbans towards some of the County people was not justified:
“If they were wrong about that they could be wrong about other things, too. He realized with another smaller shock that he was thinking of the other Conurbans as Them - something different from himself.”
The County started to feel more real to Rob than the Conurbs shortly after he arrived there; his new, privileged life has helped to complete the mental transition.
The subversive underground at school
Mike becomes increasingly thoughtful and sometimes moody. The questions and criticism of the status quo continue. He introduces Rob to a group of boys who want to change the system. They are in touch with people outside the school who share their views. They are looking for sympathetic supporters; they think that Rob could be useful to them because he knows the Conurbs and is a good advertisement for the Conurbans.
Rob is not impressed by the rebels' arguments and is not tempted to join them in their attempts to change the stagnant, rotten system from the top. He doesn’t want to risk losing his new life and family: he is afraid of being sent back just as he is starting to experience some feelings of belonging.
Rob and Mike agree to differ
At Christmas, Mike and Rob go to stay with one of the school ‘revolutionaries’, a boy called Penfold. At his house they meet his older brother, an ex-officer who is very critical of the system: he says that it is all conditioning and conspiracy. After returning to school, Ron and Mike realise that they are on opposing sides and arguing will get them nowhere. Rob suspects that Mike is up to something; he knows that his mother is worried about him.
Rebellion
There is an uprising in the County. Some people are wounded and some are killed. Mike is missing. Mike’s mother demands to know the truth:
"Tell me what you know. Everything."
There was no point, he told himself, in keeping the confidence any longer. Even if there had been, he doubted if he could have resisted her demand. He feared her anger, wanted her not to hate him. He spoke of the meeting in Penfold's study and of the things that had happened afterward.
When he had finished she said, "I told you at Christmas I was worried about Mike, and asked your help. Was this the best you could do? Wash your hands of the whole thing?’’
"I argued with him."
"Argued!"
“He only spoke of revolt at the beginning. I thought it was just a wild idea, that it couldn't come to anything. The whole thing seemed crazy."
She stared at him. "You were a runaway when Mike found you. A Conurban. Hungry and thirsty, dirty, frightened, in rags and a scarecrow's coat. He helped you, looked after you, persuaded us to take you in, to make you one of the family. I hope you are happy over the way you have repaid him."
After that, Rob feels that he should leave but she asks him to stay. In the short term she feels unprotected because she and her daughter are alone; for the longer term there is a slight hint that she thinks that he would make a suitable son-in-law.
Role reversal
The revolt is crushed. There are rumours that that the younger Penfold has been killed. Mike secretly returns home one night to get some fresh clothing and supplies. He is cold, wet, tired and hungry. Now it is Rob’s turn to play the rescuer and help a fugitive.
They have the same old argument: Mike still wants a revolution; Rob still supports the status quo. Mike says that there are Conurbans who are in favour of overthrowing the system; Rob thinks that the opposition can’t possibly win.
Mike plans to go over the Barrier and live in the Conurbs; Rob thinks that he should surrender. Rob says that nothing would happen to Mike if he turned himself in; Mike thinks otherwise.
Rob does not alert Mike’s family to his presence and his friend leaves the house safely after having given Rob the address of the safe house in the Conurbs where he will be staying.
Everything soon comes to head and things take a turn for the worse. Rob has not fooled everyone; some people are on to him. He learns that some very dark and sinister things are going on behind the idyllic scenes in the County, and he soon has to make another big decision about where to go and where his loyalties lie.
A depiction of the Conurbs, the County and the Barrier:
