It was the harsh winter of 1946, while the Japanese and the Americans continued to slaughter each other in the tens of thousands every week in the Pacific, in England there was an uneasy calm. With the Party's power legally secured by the new civil code, Anglo-Scots Law, and the BBC and newspapers whipped into line, there are few overt threats remaining.

However, communists and free speech campaigners who successfully escaped internment or internal exile continued to cause headaches for the police and the military. The replacement for the Defence of the Realm Act, the Defence of the Republic Act, was passed in 1943, establishing the Republican Security Forces, a paramilitary under the control of the Home Office mid-way between the police and the army.

Even within the ranks of the RSF, traitors still began to appear for the first few years.

After the sun sank below the horizon, one of the RSF garrison, *name, rank and species withheld* at the Stanlow Oil Refinery slipped out of barracks after hours. He let himself into one of the boiler rooms and began fiddling with the equipment.

*remainder withheld*

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