shit, KC, you sh—!'
Her voice went out in a burst of static at the same
time as a metallic crunch reverberated through the ship.
When he looked at the external monitor the scavenger
was gone, apart from a twisted chunk of the drill
mounting. There were also numerous scores and gouges
in the hull plating, but nothing serious was triggering
warnings on the main console.
'A well thought-out tactic, Gowchee,' said Drazuma-
Ha*.
'Yes,' he said. 'And cold-blooded. Apart from one of
the Chaurixa victims, she was the only Human I'd met
since leaving the Roug system.'
'She rejected your offer, Gowchee - there was no
other option open to us. But I am tracking her craft's
progress and from its behaviour I surmise that she may
have survived the collision . ..'
He perked up at this. 'What behaviour?'
'The scavenger craft is falling in a steep curve
towards the planet and the firing of positional thrusters
seems to have stabilised its .. . ah, something has ejected
but it too is heading towards the planet's surface,
although with a far shallower trajectory.'
Kao Chih sat back, feeling oddly relieved.
'You look pleased, Gowchee, despite her attempts to
enslave or kill us. It is possible after all that the Chaurixa
may retrieve her and exact punishment on her anyway.'
He shrugged. 'I am just glad that she survived,
Drazuma-Ha *. I want to have no deaths on my con-
science.'
'A laudable if somewhat impractical goal, Gowchee.'
'Why impractical?'
'From observation and experience I can state that
there were, are and always will be those that are eager
and willing to use violence to get what they want -
opposing them means responding with violence, leading
inevitably to deaths.'
'What of the use of cunning and non-violent methods
of opposing them?' Kao Chih said.
'Either may well constitute an adequate defence, if
the attackers are significantly less advanced than those
being attacked. However, technological superiority is no
guarantee of success.'
'Which reminds me,' Kao Chih said, gazing at the
external monitor. 'Are we still being chased and how
long till we can attempt a hyperjump?'
'Our pursuers have given up - it seems one of them
sustained a disabling impact from a piece of wreckage
and the other is towing it back to the Chaurixan moth-
ership. As for a hyperspace jump - we will be exiting the
densest area of debris in approximately two minutes,
which will free up that portion of the ship's system stack
that has been occupied with tracking and guidance.
Then you will have a choice to make.'
Kao Chih sighed. 'Will this be a choice between a
risky option and a deeply hazardous one?'
'Well summarised, Gowchee. This star system lies
near the edge of the Huvuun Deepzone and your desti-
nation, the world called Darien, is somewhere within
that hazy region.'
Drazuma-Ha * had called up a representation of the
immediate stellar region. The Shafis System was a bright
pinpoint where a pale green wedge - the Yamanon
Domain - met the amorphous, sepia opacity of the
Huvuun. 'The navigational matrix contains six course
templates, but the only one that's of any use to us ter-
minates at Yonok, a Brolturan world near the border
with the Kahimbryk Avail.' On the screen, a neon-red
line joined Shafis to another bright point on the other
side of a narrow grey territory which separated
Yamanon space from the blue of the Brolturan
Compact. The coreward boundaries of all three
adjoined the Huvuun Deepzone.
'Give me the deeply hazardous option first,' he said.
'That is where we tell the navigationals to guess
where the local hyperspace Tier 1 beacons are, then
guess what our iso-orientation should be as we make
the jump to Yonok.'
Kao Chih shivered. It sounded a lot like their escape
from Blacknest, and they had been very lucky to get to
Tagreli Openport rather than wind up in the middle of
nowhere, or even an unfriendly somewhere. It was
surely too much to rely on that kind of luck again.
'And the merely risky option?'
'The navigationals estimate the location of the near-
est Tier 1 beacon which, according to the course
template notes, is coterminous with Kahimbryk space,
plus or minus 5 per cent. When we reach that beacon we
drop out of hyperspace and head for the nearest com-
mercial centre to see if we can obtain course data for
this Darien.'
'Course errors?' Kao Chih murmured.
'Exactly so, which is why I favour the second
option - a shorter hyperspace jump would mean less
time for errors to magnify. Besides, if we were ever to
reach Yonok safely, the Brolturans would not be inclined
to treat us kindly.'
Kao Chih nodded. 'Very well, the merely risky option
it is.'
'The computations should be ready in less than a
minute,' said the mech.
And when the moment came, he sat back in his
couch, head pressed back against the padded neck sup-
port, hands gripping the arm rests, jaw clenched.
At least this time there's no rampaging droids trying
to tear the ship apart or beautiful kidnappers speeding
us off to some surgical-nightmare-torture-ship, he
thought as the force-waves mounted in the tesserae
fields at the heart of the Castellan's hyperdrive. But I'm
sure something will be waiting for us round the next
corner.
45
THEO-
About fifteen hours after the moment when he'd seen
the Earthsphere ambassador vanish in a swirl of corus-
cating energies, Theo Karlsson was on foot and heading
along the northerly banks of Loch Morwen. He had
been walking for hours since descending the steep hill
paths from the mountain ridges west of Giant's Shoulder
and his feet were crying out for rest. He knew there was
a tannery near here, and roughly a mile further on a
small cove where he was due to meet one of Rory's local
contacts who was supposed to spirit him up the shore
road to a safe house at the edge of the city. A bite to eat,
perhaps even a shower, then the chance to sit down and
take stock of the situation before moving on, that was
all he needed.
He had just caught a whiff of that acrid tannery
odour when his comm rang inside his jacket. He dug it
out, saw the calling number and in a rush of anger
answered abruptly.
'What?'
'Ah, Major, not caught you at a bad time, have I?
A relaxed, confident voice speaking vaguely Russian
inflected Noranglic. Silent since that bomb went off in
Founders Square, it was Kuros's catspaw, the agent
provocateur, the assassin.
'What do you want?'
'To congratu
late you, Major. It was breathtaking the
way that you snatched Horst out from under the
Brolturans' noses. I wonder what you will do with
him - personally, I recommend execution.'
'Do you, now?'
'He is a traitor to Earth, Major, to Humanity. For
decades, he and others like him have turned our race
into fawning, deluded minions of the Hegemony and
brought us down to the level of lesser species'
'Ah, the racial purity angle again - you're reliable in
your obsessions.'
'Indeed I am, Major. The Free Darien Faction is
obsessed with striking at those who obstruct our pur-
pose - you've removed our primary target so we can
now go after our secondary one, High Monitor Kuros.'
Theo laughed. 'Still serving up that FDF dreck, son?
Well, it so happens that I know that you're nothing but
a saboteur-goon for Kuros, or someone close to him, so
spare me the fake rebel defiance . . .'
'How sad - seems that their psyops have got to you
somehow, Major . . .'
'What's got to me is what I've seen, you know, at the
Brolturan ambassador's arrival? Remember the ringer
you slipped into Kuros's DVC escort? The firefight and
the grenade going off, enough smoke and confusion so
your man could do a quick-change and return to the
scene as an Ezgara? I've seen it. . .'
'Purest fantasy, Major.'
'You're wasting your breath -1 know what I saw.'
'It's futile to try persuading someone as thoroughly
hoodwinked as yourself, but I do have two little bits of
information that might be helpful to you. First you
should be aware that early this morning the Brolturans
issued a Decree of Arrest in your name, quickly fol-
lowed by a similar warrant put out by Hammergard
Police.'
'No surprise - it was bound to happen,' Theo said.
'Sorry, you'll have to try harder.'
'All right, Major, then how about this? Half an hour
ago, a section of DVC intelligence called KS arrested
your sister and took her to their offices at the Assembly
buildings. So you need to ask yourself why I would tell
you this if I am your enemy.''
Before Theo could respond the line went dead. He
glared at the mute comm.
'Because you want me to hurry over to Hammergard
and straight into a trap, you lausungeV
But that didn't stop it having the ring of authenticity,
especially if Theo was now a wanted man. He knew
that was almost certainly true, and not just about him-
self - last night, as they were leaving Giant's Shoulder by
the forest path (after the visiting Brolturan troops kept
them down in that stone tomb for over four hours), he
had warned Rory, Barney and the Firmanov brothers
that by then law enforcement would have all their
descriptions and that lying low was the only sane course
of action. Rory was to take Barney north to Bessonov's
cabin outside of High Lochiel, then head back to
Hammergard; the Firmanovs were to pick up a van full
of supplies from a garage near Landfall and drive to
meet Rory at the cabin. After Horst had been vanished
by whatever the hell it was that lurked in that chamber,
comm calls had been made, plans were put into effect
and certain Diehards moved out under cover of night.
Meanwhile, Theo was heading for Hammergard
anyway, because come what may he had to get to
Sundstrom to explain what had happened to Horst and
to find out what their next move would be. Any comm
calls into the Assembly or the president's villa would be
subject to intense surveillance, so it would have to be
face-to-face, and Sundstrom would also have to explain
why Solvjeg had been arrested.
He skirted the tannery with its algae-surfaced ponds
and filtration root arrays, and about a mile further on
found the cove. An elderly, weather-beaten man in a
heavy, dark-blue mariner's coat was sitting at the wheel
of a battered spinnervan. Passwords were exchanged,
Theo climbed in and they were soon on the road to
Hammergard. The stern-looking older man spoke
Noranglic with a pronounced Norge accent, even
though his name was Sergei. He was also taciturn to a
fault, and Theo get very little out of him during the half-
hour drive, yet when they reached his cottage on a
rounded ridge overlooking the loch, his hospitality was
unstinting. After a hot shower and a change of clothing,
there was a tasty meal of baked fish and vegetables, set
off by a generous glass of rum and ginger wine that left
Theo with a sense of well-being that he had not felt for
some time.
Then, as he was readying himself to leave, Sergei
faced him, his features as stern as before, and said:
'Kick them off our world, Major, those Sendrukan
gaduki - send them to hell!'
He gripped Theo in a bonecrushing handshake before
they parted, Theo following the road till he reached a
main junction. There he caught a spinnerbus that was
bound for the city centre. He was dressed in a long
shabby coat over a chunky woollen pullover and tough
work trousers tucked into thick wool socks. The coat
and trousers had been streaked and splattered with
mud, which also clung to the field boots he was wear-
ing. He also had on a dusty, soft-brimmed hat and a pair
of small round spectacles with plain glass instead of
lenses. The entire ensemble was far removed from his
usual attire and would hopefully allow him to get as far
as one of the Assembly building entrances. Once there,
he would have one of the couriers take a message to a
particular admin warden who was a Diehard associate -
she had already agreed to get Theo past the stringent
security and up to a storeroom near the president's
offices. Then she would act as a go-between to arrange
a meeting.
Sundstrom did not know that Theo was coming, but
Theo knew that he would be there - ever since the
announcement of Horst's Decree of Arrest, and subse-
quent disappearance, the president and his cabinet had
been in almost continuous emergency session and keep-
ing the Assembly informed of all developments. The last
vee news he saw before leaving Sergei's had said that the
remaining ministers were rushing back to Hammergard
to attend. And knowing Sundstrom, Theo guessed that
he would probably have several reporters close to hand.
From the bus window he saw Earthsphere marines
and DVC troopers out on joint patrols in twos and
fours, some walking, some in military spinner-carriers.
These sightings became more frequent the closer he got
to Founders Square. When the bus stopped near a small
park, he dismounted and continued on foot, his natural
caution heightened by that call from the FDF saboteur.
He was striding up Stefanovich Street, one of the
main roads into the square, and had just passed a long
row of flower sellers when his comm rang twice and
stopped, the alert for a voice note. He took it out, hit the
retrieve and held it up to listen.
'Theo, this is Donny - as soon as you hear this mes-
sage, shut off your comm, take out the battery, then
head for cover, get'out of sight.'
The message ended. It had sounded like Donny and it
was his style. Heart racing, he suppressed the urge to
look around him, calmly put the comm in his pocket
and one-handed switched it off. Then he managed to
slide off the rear panel and pry out the battery. At the
same time he had stopped to look at some of the buck-
ets of flowers and made his way back along past the
stalls to an alleyway with lots of arched side passages.
After following a twisty route involving a couple of
double-backs and plenty of scoping ahead and behind,
he ended up in a doorway down a side road that led into
the square. The main entrance to the Assembly faced
onto Founders Square, with the Reconciliation
Memorial, the tree-shaded grassy plots, the stone
benches, and at the far side the zeplin terminal. The
wreckage of the mooring towers had been removed, and
canvas-hung scaffolding now stood all around the ter-
minal building while the sound of jackhammers and
saws came clearly to Theo's ears.
He breathed in deep, gathering his determination.
There was a secondary entrance round the corner, an ordi-
nary-looking doorway with a sign saying 'Electoral
Registrar' but which also gave access to the ground-floor
public corridors. Theo stepped out of the doorway but
paused when he heard running footsteps approaching
from behind. Casually he leaned back against the building,
a large store called Sachnussem's, and glanced round to
see Donny Barbour hurrying towards him. Warily, Theo
faced him and nodded.
'Ye can't go in there, Theo. They've turned your con-
tact, got her kids hidden away to get her cooperation.'
Theo swore. 'Who's got them?'
'Same ones that picked up yer sister, this K5 mob -
they're a deep-cover intel unit but their commanding
officer has supposedly gone stealth and is issuing orders
to his operatives. We're assuming that the CO and
maybe some of his people are now working for Kuros,
but we've no proof, so the chief of DVC intelligence is
allowing the K5 agents who arrested her to carry out the
Michael Cobley - Humanity's Fire book 1 Page 43
