Chapter Sixteen: Out of Bounds

On the approach to Baku, Lyra and Asta watch Abdel Ionides shadow a suspected Magisterium agent, Dumitriu. At the crowded station, Lyra keeps sightlines while Asta scans behind, but they lose track among disembarking passengers. Following Ionides’s note, they wait under the big clock on Platform One, where a cloth‑cap man seems to loom as a threat.

As Lyra readies her weighted stick, the cloth‑cap man ignores her. Ionides appears and reveals the real agent was the horn‑rimmed man with a briefcase; Ionides deftly neutralized him by planting a stolen purse and tipping off a policeman, forcing an arrest. With the tail cut off, Ionides proposes finding a hotel, and Lyra agrees to lie low and meet Mr. Green later.

Meanwhile in Oxford, Alice Lonsdale hitchhikes back, keeping a low profile to avoid acquaintances. She and her dæmon Ben detour from the Broad Walk toward the river when they spot Sheila Murphy, then cross Port Meadow, where a mounted soldier stops them and declares the north end out of bounds for army training.

Alice reaches the Trout at Godstow and finds it requisitioned for billeting. Brenda and Reg, harried by soldiers, shelter and feed her; Parliament is reportedly prorogued, and the army claims dozens of beds. Fearing capture and widespread surveillance, Alice decides to vanish into London, hoping an old contact at the Savoy can help.

Reg offers to run Alice by canal to the Castle Mill Stream to reach the station discreetly. Brenda packs clothes and food; they press travel money on Alice. With Oxford militarizing and familiar refuges compromised, Alice prepares to slip away toward London.