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.But then, most people would be staying at home today, after the riot.The economic damage from the riot itself might be manageable, he considered, but what about the long-term effects of most of the population staying home from work? It might be disastrous.The streets were largely deserted, he discovered, as he walked down towards the station.A dozen light patrols of guardsmen, a handful of clean-up crews.and very little else.Half of the shops were closed and shuttered; the remainder were open, but empty, save for staff members who eyed him with open nervousness.It was obvious that they had stowed makeshift weapons in places where they could be easily accessed, if necessary.But it was against the law.Glen sighed, shaking his head.There were times when he felt it would be a great deal easier to protect the population if the laws against self-defence weren't so strong.As simple as it sounded, leaving the job of protecting the people to the police and security forces, it was much harder in practice.Even a far larger police force couldn't protect anyone.A handful of dead or critically wounded would-be muggers or rapists might be more of a deterrent than the threat of years in prison.It could hardly make matters worse.Nine out of ten rapists were never caught, no matter what happened.And the Civil Guard barely gave a damn.The station was heavily guarded, he noted as he strode in through the doors and submitted himself to the security scanner.As always, there were a handful of prisoners in the entry room, but they were cuffed and shackled to the wall, while the guards eyed them with undisguised concern.Glen gave them the once-over, decided they were looters who hadn't realised that the time for looting was definitely over, then walked past them and through the second set of security gates.Inside, he was quickly directed to the main briefing room.“Glen,” Isabel called, as he entered the chamber.“Get over here!”She elbowed him as soon as he sat down.“You left me with a mess,” she added, in a tone that suggested she was plotting revenge.“Do you know how many girls were added to the bag in the Arena?”Glen shook his head.There had been an update in his terminal, but he hadn't had time to read it.He’d planned to catch up while waiting for Patty to begin the briefing.His partner snorted.“Try nearly a thousand,” she said.“And I hear tell that it’s worse in the male section.Gavin was saying that he’s responsible for over a thousand prisoners, most of whom are stupid or desperate.It’s not good.”“I suppose not,” Glen agreed.“And what about the other cities?”“Lots of riots,” Isabel said.“And lots more prisoners.I don’t think we’ve ever arrested so many people in one day, ever.Fucked if I know how we’re going to cope with them all.”She sighed.“And you know what happened this morning? A little piece of shit from a colony agency came round and offered to make me wealthy for life if I signed every girl in the Arena over to him.”“Shit,” Glen said.“And what did you say to the bastard?”“Bugger off,” Isabel said.“I was tired.I’d have arrested him too, but he’d be out within a day and back trying to round up new servants for his colonists.”Glen nodded, then looked up as Patty entered the room and the low buzz of conversation slowly came to an end.He blinked in surprise and concern as he realised she was late, that it was seven minutes since the announced time for the meeting.Patty wasn't one of the asshole pointy-haired bosses who insisted on keeping everyone waiting, just to show how important she was.If she was late, he knew, it was serious.“For those of you who haven’t been paying attention to your briefing notes, we had more than one riot last night,” Patty said, without preamble.She sounded tired and cranky.“There were twenty-one riots in total, scattered over seventeen cities
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