Atdtda28: The city below was not the same, 792-794

[Paul Nightingale]

The Chums return, briefly, in 55.12 when Prance is "taken aloft and on to an
uncertain fate" (787), ie post-Event. Here, the new chapter begins with a
flashback to the Event, seen from the pov of the Inconvenience "arriv[ing]
over the scene of devastation shortly after the Bol'shaia Igra" (793). The
Russian crew consider Chinese or German involvement (780); the Chums think
of the Trespassers (793).

As in Ch55 there is the question of representation, from the opening
paragraph's "no one appeared to live here ..." etc (792) to "the pale blue
aftermath" etc (793). Looking for evidence of an explosion, the Russians
describe absence: "No sign of fire there ..." etc (780). For the Chums,
however, there is presence out of absence: "... the city was not the same
one they had arrived at the night before ..." etc (793). The Event has been
productive: "... the desert was renounced".

Down the page Professor Vanderjuice also attempts to describe, for the
benefit of the Chums, what has happened on the other side of the world. Ch55
ended with Fleetwood and Kit discussing Shambhala; here, the Chums believe
("they all knew") they have found it. On 780 Padzhitnoff et al discuss
"weapons implications"; and on 784 Kit recalls Ostend and the Q-weapon.
Here, we consider the possibility that the Chums have "met the same fate as
Shambhala, their protection lost ..." etc (793). On 787: "Prance thought
he'd begun to detect a presence overhead ..." etc.

Conflict between Lindsay and Darby is interrupted by "Professor Vanderjuice,
transmitting from Tierra del Fuego": evidence that the Event has registered
globally, given that, on 780, Padzhitnoff only reports what "Okhrana
believe". Here, the Professor offers a summary of "terrible rumours about"
Tesla (794); this story in turn is denounced by Darby as "capitalistic
propaganda" originating with Tesla's "enemies in New York". So, "at this
antipodal remove", explanation is just as much a parochial affair as for the
Russians.