by Neal Asher
Stanton walked on into the encampment. As the light from the tents revealed him, Cormac saw a thinner-faced individual than the one he had known. Stanton was also decidedly battered.
'I don't have any weapons - only information,' he said.
'Why are you here, John?'
'To see Pelter dead, that's all.'
'That's far enough. Now explain yourself,' said Cormac.
Stanton glanced behind him. 'I don't have much time to explain. You're going to be hit very soon now.'
'By Pelter, or by these others you refer to?'
'The others. Pelter won't come in here without some idea of what you've got. He hired people here, armed them, and promised them a shitload of cash. He's going to use them as a probe, an expendable probe. You know what he's like.'
'Why should I believe you?'
'Because I walked in here unarmed. Because I just don't care any more. You can take me, but just get Pelter.'
Cormac looked at Stanton estimatingly. There was something in his voice. Something he perhaps might not have been able to discern when he was gridlinked. It struck him that this was sincerity.
'We have heat traces,' came Aiden's voice over the com.
'That'll be them,' said Stanton.
Cormac hit the recall and shuriken grudgingly returned. He held up his arm and it snicked into place in the holster. 'John, get over here, now.'
Stanton broke into a jog and ducked down behind the wall with them. He looked with a kind of tired curiosity at the dracoman clinging to Cormac's arm. Cormac pointed at it.
'This fella is very anxious about my security. Understand that he'll rip you apart if you try anything.' Cormac nodded to Thorn. 'Search him.'
Thorn quickly and efficiently ran his hands through Stanton's clothing. He pulled aside a ripped trouser leg to expose the empty sheath there, then nodded at Cormac before ducking back down. Stanton crouched as well.
'What have you got now, Aiden?'
The Golem's voice sounded different now. Cormac realized that this difference stemmed from the fact that it was no longer speaking. It was broadcasting directly.
'Trace blurring now. They are dividing. Five bodies… Dracoman gone… We are going for cover now.'
'Remember, fire only when they reach the camp. Which of you has that stun gun?'
'I do,' said Cento.
'Well, put it away. We no longer need a live one.' He turned to Stanton. 'What will they have?'
'Assault weapons, a mortar and a few laser carbines. One of them has a Devcon loaded with seeker bullets.'
'Passing us now,' said Aiden.
Suddenly there was a scream, then the stutter of a pulse-rifle. Garish flashes lit the trees. One tree was blasted to flinders. The scream ceased.
'That cuts it,' came Arn's annoyed comment.
'Damn! Hold fire until you've identified your targets. I don't want one of you hitting Cento or Aiden.'
A flare went up through the trees and a man was halfway across the clearing before the light gave him away. He opened fire on the tents. Flames and smoke revealed the beam from a laser carbine. There was the blue flash of a pulse-rifle and he went face-down in the dirt. More firing, then a horrible hornetlike buzzing. Two explosions in the buildings to the right. A horrible sucking gasp over the com.
'Shit! Seeker bullets!'
'Heat flares!' shouted Cormac.
Like the finale of a fireworks display, orange flares shot in every direction amongst the buildings. The buzzing continued. Two flares went out and a nearby explosion rained flakes of rubble down on Cormac's head. The dracoman pulled him lower and he swore at it. Another stuttering pulse of light.
'They're back to the lasers,' said Arn.
'Where are you, Cento? Aiden?'
'Moving clear,' they replied simultaneously.
Then Aiden said, 'There's one to the left of the carrier operating a mortar. Can't get a clear shot from here.'
'Got him,' replied Thorn.
There was a purple flash and loud crack. A white explosion split in two a tree with a trunk a metre thick. Subliminally Cormac saw something, which might have been a man, blacken, disappear.
'There's one just beyond that burning tent - no, the dracoman's on him.'
The scream was horrible. Cormac saw two shadows grappling. One shadow folded the other to the ground. He was sure he could hear bones breaking.
'Only one left, I take it,' said Cormac acidly.
'Up and running,' said Aiden. 'Dracoman's after him. You want me to get him?'
'Leave it,' said Cormac, and let out a tight breath. He looked over the wall at the spirals of smoke. Over to his right someone was talking in a low monotone. To his left there was a sudden stuttering of pulse-gun fire. He swore and dropped back down.
'I said leave it,' he said into his comunit.
'Something in the trees,' came Goff's reply.
'Aiden, you getting anything?'
'Nothing now, but there was a trace just then. Moved too fast to be a bird,' the Golem replied.
'Surveillance drone?'
'Possible.'
'Any other traces?'
'Nothing:'
On that last word the second dracoman released Cormac's arm. He pulled away, dropped his comunit in his top pocket, and then turned on the dracoman.
'Do that again and I cut your rucking hand off,' he said.
The dracoman showed its teeth. It could have been a smile.
Cormac left it and went to find out who had died.
Two of the regulars were dead. Seeker bullets had ripped through their body armour and the pressure vessels they contained had exploded with messy results. Cormac was told one of them was the soldier Cheng. Cormac had what remained of the men scooped up and put in body-bags, then shallow-buried at the perimeter of the camp. The three recoverable bodies - the men the dracoman had killed - were brought in and laid out. Cormac recognized none of them. He turned to Stanton, just behind whom stood Thorn and Sergeant Arn.
'Locally hired,' he said.
'Yes, but Pelter has four you know with him,' Stanton replied.
Cormac looked at him questioningly.
Stanton went on. 'Corlackis and his brother, Svent and Dusache.'
'When will they come in? Soon?'
'No, Pelter won't want it over that quickly'
Cormac nodded, then looked at the sergeant. 'Take him into the carrier, strip-search him, then tie him up.'
The sergeant obeyed wiui a kind of grim relish. Cormac wondered if he expected entertainment in repayment for the deaths of his two men. He would be disappointed. He noticed that Stanton went without protest. The man seemed broken, grieving. He'd have to get the full story from him later. Right now he wanted everything organized, precise. Much as he was inclined to believe what Stanton had told him, he still was not prepared to relax defences here. With Thorn at his back he walked towards Aiden, who was crouching by the wreckage of what had been a tree before Thorn's attentions.
'That dracoman back yet?' he asked.
Aiden glanced up and said, 'No, but we have an AGC coming in directly.'
'Scatter!'
The men ran for cover. Cormac turned to Thorn. 'Get in the carrier. If it fires on us, use the turret weapons.'
Thorn nodded and ran for the carrier. Cormac watched the Sparkind leap Stanton, who was now facedown on the ground, with Arn tying his wrist behind him. That was covered, then. Cormac jogged over to Aiden, thinking to take cover behind the wrecked branches of the tree. The familiar pad of feet behind him abrogated that intention for the moment. He turned and drew his shuriken as the remaining dracoman came trotting in.
The dracoman halted.
'One step closer. Go on - just one.'
The dracoman seemed to find this amusing, then boring. It looked up at the sky for a moment, then turned and trotted away. Cormac ran for the tree and dived down beside Aiden. He looked about and saw that everyone else was concealed.
'The AGC is coming right in,' s
aid Aiden.
Cormac looked up into the red night and saw that the car had its running lights on. It was an Aston Martin replica, but with its underside constructed like the hull of a speedboat. Whoever was driving it seemed to be having some problem with the controls. It swayed to a halt above the camp, then slowly started to descend. That descent speeded at the last moment and it slammed down in the middle of the camp. Cormac had shuriken in his hand, even though he knew that plenty of other weapons were pointed at the AGC. The door clicked open and the missing dracoman stepped out. Cormac swore, stood up and walked over to it. Had the other one known?
As he drew close, Cormac saw blood on the inside of the car's windows. A glance inside revealed to him a body slumped in the back seat with its head nearly ripped off. He went closer and saw it was a woman, a great mass of tangled hair spread about her, soaking up the blood. It was no one he recognized. She had to be the one that escaped. He would have to ask Stanton. He turned to the dracoman.
'We could call him Scar now,' said Thorn, from behind him.
Cormac studied the dracoman's face and saw it had been opened from one nostril to just underneath its eye. Its blood was the colour and consistency of mustard.
'And what do we call the other one?' asked Cormac.
'Nonscar?'
'Yeah, good. Now let's get this mess cleared up and a rota set up,' he said. He looked up at the sky. 'How long till dawn?'
'Ten hours, solstan,' Thorn replied.
'We'll sleep in groups of four in the carrier. Let the ES ones go first. We shouldn't be any less secure than we were. Oh, I want someone at that turret gun at all times.'
It took an hour to clear the camp and set up further covert defences. Aiden and Cento acted as guards, since they needed no sleep.
'We'll need to take out that turret gun. When he finds out you're not amongst the dead, he'll know it was just a probe. There won't be a trap next time,' said Corlackis.
'Of course,' said Pelter, his eyes still glued to the screen stuck to the framework of the missile launcher.
'So really it's just that and the two Golem.'
Pelter glanced aside and waved to Svent to take them down. Svent nodded, and fiddled with the old guide-ball control of the transporter. Slowly it started to drop down into the trees. In the shadow the thick photoactive paint on it slowly changed from a deep red to greenish black. Corlackis tapped at the controls on the minicon-sole he was holding, then dropped it into his pocket.
'What about those two lizard men?' asked Dusache.
'Don't concern yourself,' said Pelter. 'You'll be on this platform operating the launcher. You take out the carrier. Myself, Mr Crane, Mennecken and Corlackis will be going in on the ground.'
'Crane will be able to handle the Golem?' Corlackis asked.
'He will handle them,' said Pelter. 'Remember that arrogant bitch on Huma? No, we go in and we flatten them. Of course none of you hits Cormac - not even by accident. He is mine.'
Branches broke and flicked round the transporter, and large leaves spiralled down with it. Svent landed it by the private AGC that was already on the ground.
'When do we hit them?' Mennecken asked.
'Not yet,' said Pelter, then looked up as four objects settled through the trees. In the dim light they were difficult to see until very close. When visible, they had the appearance of small birds of transparent film stretched over black bones. They came in to land in a neat row on the launcher, where they closed their wings and became featureless ovoids. Corlackis took up a metal box from the deck and carefully placed each of the surveillance drones in its respective compartment. As an afterthought he took the miniconsole from his pocket and placed it in its compartment as well.
The sky was a kind of muddy-brown just before sunrise. Cormac would not have seen it, as he had been deeply asleep. But Aiden shook him awake.
'Another AGC coming directly here. Cento is rousing the others.'
Cormac rubbed sleep from his eyes. 'What's going on, they relocated the AGC park?'
'Pardon?'
'Never mind.'
Cormac sat upright and looked around. Thorn was already at the door of the carrier, his weapon resting on his shoulder. The sergeant and one of the two men were putting on their boots. Lying with his cuffed wrists secured to a steadying handle above one of the bunks, Stanton watched with disinterest. Cormac slid from his bed fully dressed. It was not the first time he had slept in body-armour.
'How far?' he asked.
'Ten minutes away'
Cormac turned to Stanton. 'Pelter?'
Stanton shrugged. 'Could be, but I doubt it. He'll want you to sweat for a while.'
Cormac snorted and turned away. 'Who's on the turret gun?… Never mind. Sergeant, no firing unless fired on. Thorn, Aiden, with me.'
The sergeant began speaking into his comunit as the three headed for the door. Above, they heard the drone of hydraulics as the turret gun swung round. Outside, Cormac saw that the men were dispersed around the camp with their weapons trained on the sky. Once again an AGC came in with its lights on and landed in the middle of the camp. Cormac immediately recognized the diminutive figure that stepped out, and advanced from cover with a smile on his face. Taking their cue from him, the other men did the same.
'All this fuss over me,' said Mika as she lifted a case from the AGC. 'I could get to like it.'
It was the first time Cormac had heard her be coquettish. It seemed very unlike her. He had imagined her as being more direct.
'It's good to see you, but why are you here?' asked Cormac.
'They're refitting the Hubris. It's like a madhouse there. I asked Blegg if I could come to follow up on some studies.' She looked pointedly at the dracomen as they came from the trees to squat by the carrier.
'He's still there then - Blegg?'
'Yes, and managing to annoy everyone with the minimum effort.'
They walked towards the carrier.
Mika went on. 'I also thought you might need a medic, if you haven't got one…'
'A couple of the men are trained, Thorn as well. There was an attack last night, but most injuries have been tended to.'
'Attack. Presumably not the Maker?'
'A Separatist group.'
Mika nodded. 'I see one injury that hasn't been tended to,' she said. She gestured to the dracoman now called Scar.
Cormac could not think of a reply. Just then one of the regulars came running across.
'Sir! Sir! Something took one of the bodies in the night.'
Mika looked at Cormac, and Cormac looked at Mika. They both looked at the dracomen.
'Probably an animal. We should have buried them,' Cormac told the man.
'Shall we bury them, sir?'
'If you like.'
The regular departed.
'You could have at least fed them,' said Mika accusingly, and then walked over to the wounded draco-man. Cormac watched her go, a slight smile twisting his features, and then he frowned and headed back for the carrier. Once inside he called to the soldier at the gun.
'You, go outside for a moment, please,' he said.
The soldier climbed down from the control seat, saluted, and quickly went on his way. Cormac dropped down on the bunk opposite Stanton.
'You were right,' he said.
Stanton just stared back at him.
Cormac went on. 'How long do you think Pelter will… let me sweat?'
'The longer he leaves it, the more it will work for him. Your men will be tired, less alert. But he does want to kill you rather badly. I'd say two days at most.'
'Now tell me why I should believe you.'
Stanton looked down at the floor for a long moment before replying. 'Pelter has a large quantity of money with him. I intended to relieve him of it once I found a way round Crane.'
'Crane?'
'Mr Crane. The broken Golem. Watch out for him. He was a Twenty-five, and now he's armoured and very tough. You wouldn't believe what he's capable of.'
'I would,' said Cormac. 'I have two Golem Thirties with me.'
Stanton stared for a long moment, then a slow smile broke out on his face. 'Won't Pelter be surprised,' he said.
'Tell me about this money. That's not like you, John. You've had ample opportunity to rip Pelter off.'
'That's what Jarvellis said.'
'jarvellis?'
Stanton told him, and Cormac made his decision. He couldn't wait for Pelter. He needed to resolve some things now before Dragon got impatient and threw a tantrum that many of those on Samarkand might not survive. He took up the two Enropower boxes from under one of the bunks, and then left Stanton where he was. Outside the carrier he turned to the soldier.
'Get back on that gun. The call I'm just about to put out does not apply to you.'
The man nodded and quickly ducked back inside the carrier. Cormac tucked one of the boxes under his arm and pulled his comunit.
'I want all of you into the camp right now,' he said, and then walked to where Mika was working on Scar. He saw that she had been forced to use wire to pull together the rent in Scar's tough hide. The dracoman seemed unconcerned. Cormac wondered if an anaesthetic had been used, if one had even been needed. He dropped the two boxes at his feet and looked around as they all came in.
Thorn, Aiden and Cento were the first to join him, all three of them carrying energy weapons, then the sergeant with his six remaining men. When they were all gathered round, Cormac studied mem for a moment before speaking.
'Right. There's another group out mere who may attack. We stay here and they can come in at their leisure. I know their leader, Arian Pelter, and am certain that any plans he's formulating revolve around an attack on us on the ground. Especially as those plans will be dependent on the broken Golem he has with him, one Mr Crane.' He shot a look at Aiden and Cento, but could discern no reaction. 'I'm not prepared to wait for that attack. I came here to do a job, and I'm going to do it. Sergeant, I want you and your men up as spotters and as a first line. I want you, with another man on the turret guns, to take up the carrier and circle the perimeter of the ruins. The rest of your men will operate outside that perimeter, as before. If it looks like anyone is coming in, you inform me immediately and then we form our response to the nature of the attack. This is where Pelter falls down: he can't do that. He's ruthless, but stubborn to the point of idiocy. He'll stick with a plan to the end. We - ' Cormac gestured to Cento, Aiden and Thorn,' -will be going in on sky-bikes. If we come out in a hurry you get to the ground and under cover. Your main concern then will be self-preservation. Any questions?'
