Blackclad

People tear down trees to build their houses, and the melting snow water sluices down the mountainside, carrying occasional houses and blackclad robeclad Zen masters too.

'Hardly a day would go by,' recalled Sari Nusseibeh, 'when I didn't spy into the streets beyond No-Man's-Land' and there in Mea Shearim, 'I saw blackclad men. Sometimes the bearded creatures looked back at me.'

River hadn't laid eyes on Hobden before, but this had to be him: average height, thinning brownish hair, look of terror as he turned to face this new intrusion even while crushed in an arm-lock by the previous invader, the achiever—except this wasn't an achiever: he was blackclad, wore a balaclava, had a utility belt round his waist, but the ensemble lacked the hi-tech tailoring of the genuine article.