This chapter opens with a flashback to the previous chapter, in which the narrator explains that he is a member of the military police squad, which is tasked with maintaining law and order in the empire. He is outraged to learn that the authorities have declared a state of emergency and that the squad is to be disbanded. He believes that if the authorities had not declared the squad disbanded, there would have been no need for it, as the police would not have had the authority to enforce the law. He also believes that the two men who have been arrested for throwing rocks at the entrance to the congress hall are guilty of being part of a conspiracy to poison the citizens of the empire by making them believe that they are enemies of the state. He concludes that the poison is not spreading as planned.