Jim woke to discover Alba had declared itself a people’s republic. As far as Jim could work out, the person in charge of the country was Jack Allen, the apolitical politician whom Jim had seen speak at the memorial service for the ‘opposition martyrs’.
The first change Jim noticed under Allen was that when he arrived at work at the university, he discovered it was closed. He then checked his flip and discovered a host of messages explaining that the temporary People’s Republic Council had dismissed the chancellor along with most of the senior staff. There was a note attached to the gates on the Teviot Place entrance explaining that a new institution to serve the people would open soon.
But the gate was not completely closed, and inside Jim could make out groups of students shouting at ea
