 The truce between the Clan and the Lee Family of New Britain seems to hold, at least.The Clan still does not trust the upstart; Miriam is largely kept isolated in the first parallel world of Gruinmarkt, a virtual prisoner, and unable to travel unchaperoned.Miriam escapes surveillance for a time and finds out about the "insurance policy", a plot by the more modernizing faction of the Clan to create hundreds more world-walkers by offering mass artificial insemination at compromised sperm banks, then attempt to recruit the resulting children.