The chap­ter opens with Theo enter­ing the For­eign and Com­mon­wealth build­ing, now the res­i­dence and office of Xan, the War­den of Eng­land. He is greet­ed by famil­iar Grenadiers and led to a meet­ing room where he finds the full Coun­cil assem­bled, seat­ed oppo­site a sin­gle emp­ty chair meant for him. The set­up is clear­ly designed to unset­tle him, and Theo reacts with a mix of sur­prise and anger. Xan wears the Coro­na­tion Ring, a sym­bol­ic ges­ture meant to assert his author­i­ty, which Theo cri­tiques as unnec­es­sary. The ten­sion is pal­pa­ble as Theo con­fronts the Coun­cil, ques­tion­ing the legit­i­ma­cy of their pow­er.

Theo direct­ly chal­lenges the Council’s prac­tices, par­tic­u­lar­ly the “Qui­etus,” a state-sanc­tioned euthana­sia pro­gram for the elder­ly. He recounts wit­ness­ing a vio­lent and chaot­ic event at South­wold, where elder­ly indi­vid­u­als were forcibly dragged onto boats and shack­led, with one woman bru­tal­ly clubbed to death. Feli­cia dis­miss­es the inci­dent as mis­man­age­ment, but Theo argues that such bru­tal­i­ty under­mines the claim that the Qui­etus is vol­un­tary. The Council’s defen­sive respons­es reveal their detach­ment from the suf­fer­ing they over­see, with Har­ri­et and Woolv­ing­ton offer­ing cold jus­ti­fi­ca­tions for the pro­gram.

The dis­cus­sion shifts to the Man Penal Colony, anoth­er con­tro­ver­sial ini­tia­tive. Theo accus­es the Coun­cil of neglect­ing the colony, lead­ing to star­va­tion, mur­der, and law­less­ness. Xan’s point­ed question—“how do you know?”—hints at sus­pi­cion and poten­tial dan­ger for Theo. Feli­cia defends the colony’s estab­lish­ment, empha­siz­ing the reset­tle­ment of its orig­i­nal inhab­i­tants and the pro­vi­sion of basic resources. Theo’s rebut­tal high­lights the lack of gov­er­nance and polic­ing, draw­ing par­al­lels to his­tor­i­cal penal colonies. The exchange under­scores the Council’s author­i­tar­i­an con­trol and their dis­re­gard for human dig­ni­ty.

The chap­ter con­cludes with Theo’s grow­ing real­iza­tion of the Council’s moral decay and his own pre­car­i­ous posi­tion. His con­fronta­tion­al tone and the Council’s dis­mis­sive reac­tions empha­size the widen­ing gap between those in pow­er and the oppressed. The dia­logue expos­es the hypocrisy of the Council’s rhetoric, as they jus­ti­fy bru­tal poli­cies under the guise of order and neces­si­ty. Theo’s defi­ance marks a turn­ing point, set­ting the stage for fur­ther con­flict in a dystopi­an world where pow­er is main­tained through fear and manip­u­la­tion.