'Dr Domecq?'

'Doctor who?'

'You were travelling with Dr Domecq?'

80.

Abruptly gripped by an inexplicable alarm, Anji slapped her head into her hands. She was being interrogated. This Peron woman was testing her answers.

She was dressed in a white smock, but there was something not right about her.

Her bedside manner was up the creak. She just wasn't friendly enough to be a doctor. Too detached. Too cold. Something wasn't right.

'I'm sorry,' Anji babbled, 'I think I'm still a bit disorientated. My head's in a tangle. I'm still experiencing hallucinations '

'Hallucinations?'

'I saw a child '

'A child?' That certainly piqued her interest.

Anji wondered if she should say any more, if she'd said too much already.

This woman wasn't who she was pretending to be. And mention of the child had focused her like a stick of ignited dynamite.

'You saw a child? In here? Can you describe it?'

'It was standing over there. Performing a magic trick.'

Anji realised suddenly how ridiculous she sounded and shut up. But Peron seemed more enthralled than ever.

'Magic trick?'

'The vanishing Ping-Pong ball. You know. . . '

She tried to demonstrate with an imaginary ball but it looked a bit gawky.

She never was much good with that sort of stuff.

Peron was operating the bedside machine, opening a drawer that contained what looked like packs and tubes of medicines. She pulled out a disc and placed it in the palm of her hand, peeling away some kind of cover from the outer surface. While she worked she was speaking, sounding almost apologetic.

'Sounds like you're suffering post-traumatic visions,' she surmised. 'I think it's probably wise to let you get some more sleep so we can make sure everything's in order in that little brain of yours.'

Then she slapped Anji across the face with the hand that contained the pad.

Anji started to yelp with shock but the sound cut off before it had chance to get out.

And then there was silence and black.

Back in her office, Peron activated the security 'gram and an image of med-ops bloomed into the air above her desk. Streaming back through the last ten minutes, she found Kapoor waking to gaze about the room, apparently not daring to move too much. The girl eventually sat up on the bed and began to examine the skull harness.

81.Peron watched as Kapoor's attention was snagged by something over by the wall. The girl was staring, puzzled at first but then amused. Freezing the recording, Peron called up a secondary set of readings that she studied alongside the inert 'gram. Satisfied that there was definitely n.o.body else in the room with the girl, Peron cancelled the readout but left the girl suspended in freeze-frame. Fingers working expertly, she called up the record from the med unit that was keyed in to Kapoor. Running back a few minutes, Peron located a point where the girl's graphs peaked suddenly. There was an adrenaline pulse and other cardiovascular evidence that girl had been startled in this time frame: Peron ran back a few more seconds before synching the 'gram with the med record, then running both recordings simultaneously. As she watched, the girl looked startled at precisely the moment her physiology went haywire. She'd most definitely seen something in that room, though the 'gram showed only her.

Running through a few quick adjustments, Peron called up the record of Pryce and Domecq's earlier visit to cell two. The picture wasn't too clear since the cells were so dark, but she could just make out Domecq's back to camera.

Keying in all the image enhancements the software could muster, Peron managed to improve the picture marginally. She could see over Domecq's shoulder that he was showing the child a small white ball. A moment later the ball had vanished, only to appear again presumably from Domecq's mouth. At that point the creature actually smiled and reached out slowly to touch Domecq's face.

Fixing the image, Peron could only gaze at it in astonishment. There was a look in the creature's eyes that made her feel suddenly very uneasy. It was a look that spoke of trust and sincerity and turned upside down all the gut reactions she'd ever felt towards the things.

The image remained suspended above the desk while Peron felt that she'd been freeze-framed herself.

Until she slammed her fist on to the desktop to cancel the 'gram. Stupid.

Trick of the light. These were aberrations that had eroded Pryce's sanity. They were dangerous freaks that had no right to be kept alive. Any innocence was guile disguised. And Domecq was obviously allowing himself to be taken in by it. Peron had a job to do. A mystery to solve. The legerdemain with the ball was obviously what Kapoor had referred to as the Ping-Pong trick. But how could she know what Domecq had done in there?

How could she know?

They moved silently through the filthy realms beyond the walls, a domain of 82darkness and dust, of circuits and service conduits, of spiders and rats. Rigged for combat and prep'd for action, they made their advance like a city-machine, steadily advancing through the superstructure towards their goal.

Captain De-ann Foley had been charged with the task of taking Bains out, once and for all. She'd been given free rein to hand-pick her own squad, and that team consisted of Klute and Downs, with Chyan and Ma.s.sey for support.

The locator on Bains's stolen gun put him in Tyran's private offices. There were no sec cams in that area, so to some extent they were working blind.

a.s.suming that Bains kept the gun firmly in his grasp, they could get a good enough fix on him to shoot him in the head. Downs was expert enough with the detector to keep everybody else out of trouble. The dilemma was that, with his injuries, Bains could well lose the gun to somebody else, and that might mean killing Tyran by mistake. Too risky. They would have to make an entrance, obtain sight, then kill. It made the op more complex than Foley would have liked, but she was here now and it was just another job to be done.

Downs signalled on her helmet and she stopped and waited for him to catch up.

'Four bodies,' Downs hissed, crouching so that she could see the detector.

'This one here is well bizarre. Looks like some heavy-duty internal enhancements.'

'That'll be Domecq,' she said.

'Well the other three must be Bains, Tyran and possibly one of Tyran's staff.

a.s.suming Bains is the one with the pistol, we can position ourselves here ' he pointed to an inset window on the detector 'here, and here. These are weak points. We could drop through there and there. That should put us either side and behind him. There'll be a right old ruckus when we drop through. That should be enough to shock him for a second or two. Let's say one second and we need him down. Otherwise we could have a bit of a mess on our hands.'

Foley studied the window, a.s.sessing the layout of the structure above Tyran's office. Downs was right, of course. He'd positioned them for maximum impact.

That was his job. Her job was to get them back out alive.

'OK,' she agreed. 'Tell the others. We'll drop on my signal.'

There was a curious lack of satisfaction in the act of holding a gun to Tyran's head. And, now Bains had got the man's complete attention, he wasn't entirely sure what he wanted to do with it.

After some dramatic waving of weapons and shouting of threats, Bains had Tyran standing out in the open just where he could see exactly what he was 83.getting up to along with Zach and the stranger. Bains finally eased himself into Tyran's seat and laid one of the pistols on the desk. He was engulfed in flames of pain every time he moved, and he suspected he might have internal bleeding. He felt dizzy and a more than a bit light-headed, so he had to get this thing over with quickly before it was too late.

'I want you to stop this machine,' he announced.

Tyran was shaking his head. 'Not that simple.'

'Of course it's that simple,' Bains told him. 'You just press the right b.u.t.tons and apply the brakes.'

'There are no brakes,' Tyran a.s.sured him. 'Powering down an operation of this magnitude would take twenty-four hours. Have you any idea just how big this city is, Professor?'

'Then change our course,' Bains demanded, emphasising the gun in his grasp.

'I can't let you destroy those finds. They're infinitely more valuable than your per-capita dollars, Mr Tyran.'

'We've had this conversation already,' Tyran reminded him wearily.

' You've You've had this conversation already,' Bains corrected. 'I wasn't part of it before.' He fingered the trigger pointedly. 'Now it's me doing the talking and you doing the listening for once.' had this conversation already,' Bains corrected. 'I wasn't part of it before.' He fingered the trigger pointedly. 'Now it's me doing the talking and you doing the listening for once.'

'You're willing to take a life to protect things that are long dead and gone?'

'I'm willing to do anything to protect the secrets of Ceres Alpha '

He let off a random shot and everybody in the room jumped out of their skins. A wall panel exploded into a shower of flying shrapnel.

'Anything at all.'

'You found archaeological evidence of a previous civilisation?' asked the stranger.

Bains recognised him from Military One. He'd been dashing out with Foley when Bains was being sensitively escorted back to the cells. Bains had never seen the man before tonight, but he a.s.sumed he was part of the military setup.

If he was in consultation with Tyran, he was certainly one of the top bra.s.s, despite his attire suggesting he was some kind of lunatic.

'Trinkets,' Tyran cut in. 'A crate of worthless animal bones.'

Delving into his pocket, Bains produced the triangular stone and cast it on to the desk. The stranger grasped it before anyone had chance to stop him. Bains levelled the pistol in his direction, but he was completely oblivious to it as he gazed in wonder at the detail of the stone.

'Worthless animal bones?' the stranger said, throwing Tyran a look that shot him down in flames. 'I doubt that anything you could refer to as "animal" could 84create carvings like these.'

He produced an eyegla.s.s from his pockets and proceeded to peer into the intricate detail of the stone. Then he handed both the stone and the gla.s.s to Tyran, who threw them back on to the desk without so much as a glance.

'This is immaterial,' he insisted. 'This race is long gone. This land is ours, and our need is critical. Try showing that to Earth Central and see where it gets you.'

'That's just what we're going to do,' Bains told him, dropping the stone back into his pocket. 'I know what they'll say when I take this to Earth Central.

And so do you. They'll stop work. They'll send out archaeological teams to excavate your precious planet. They'll spend years digging and brushing and conscientiously investigating. And in the meantime you'll lose billions. Worse than that: you'll be exposed as the criminal you really are.'

'People are dying on Earth for lack of s.p.a.ce,' Tyran reminded him.

'People are dying on Earth for human greed,' Bains corrected. 'We live our lives in boxes. Feed our children synthogens. Extend our lives way beyond their intended spans just to spend that entire duration inside v-worlds and hologames. You can't just keep living like that, grasping all the s.p.a.ce you can get your selfish hands on regardless of the consequences. There isn't a real blade of gra.s.s left standing on Earth. We're worse than locusts.'

'That debate is centuries old,' Tyran said simply. 'It was argued to its limits by our fathers' fathers and they made those decisions for us. Human life is the most sacrosanct thing there is. I'd like to see you convince people on Earth that they should sacrifice their children for the sake of these dinosaur bones.'

'Sacrifice their children?' Bains yelled, ignoring the agonies his shouting ignited. 'You can't ignore the lessons of the past. You could sacrifice every life that sets foot here if you don't understand what devastated that previous civilisation '

At that instant a million things seemed to happen at once. The ceiling caved in with a crash that lasted for ever. Bains's suffering was promptly replaced by a kind of tingling shock. Black-armoured people appeared in the room, guns raised at his head. Tyran and Zach were obviously overcome by the same shocked stasis that affected Bains. But the stranger had somehow removed a pistol from one of the falling soldiers and now he held it to Tyran's head. The soldier appeared completely perplexed, wavering in the background with his empty hands held high.

'Ah, Captain Foley,' the stranger said cheerily. 'How nice of you to drop in.'

Foley stood almost directly in front of Bains, eyes everywhere, evaluating 85.the situation. She could shoot him easily, but she was glaring at the stranger furiously. Out of the corner of his eye, Bains saw one of the other soldiers swing his gun to cover the stranger.

'I believe this is what's known as stalemate,' the stranger grinned, seemingly having the time of his life.

Bains could see the advantage slipping through his fingers. He was holding a gun on Foley, but there were more guns on him. He sensed somebody at his rear but he didn't have a clue how many of them there were. If he fired he was shooting himself. There was a good chance he would fail to do enough damage to make medicare ineffectual, but the others were experts and they certainly wouldn't. Bains didn't know how good a shot the stranger was, however, and, since it seemed the man was on his side, that redressed the balance somewhat.

It was, as the stranger had pointed out to everyone present, something of a stalemate.

'Don't be stupid, Doctor,' Foley seethed. 'Put it down.'

'You first,' the Doctor responded jovially.

Tyran raised his hands in the air.

'Captain Foley,' he said, the strain showing in his voice, 'would you please put down your arms?'

'Sir?'

'I don't want this man hurt any more than he has been already,' Tyran said, obviously meaning Bains.

'Sir?'

'Would you all please put down your arms?' Tyran repeated. 'Professor Bains is going to walk out of here and book himself into Medicare Central, and you are going to return to Military One, mission accomplished.'

'This man is dangerous,' Foley began to argue, keeping the gun level and Bains in her sights.

'Captain Foley,' Tyran said more firmly now, 'if you don't lower your gun now I'll have you sweeping floors before breakfast.'

Foley lowered with all the reluctance in the world, and the squad followed suit. There was a tangible release of tension when the Doctor also lowered his gun and handed it to Tyran. Only Bains remained on full alert, pistol raised at Foley's head.

'You'd never make it,' Tyran pointed out.

Bains a.s.sessed the logistics of his predicament, already aware that Tyran was right. The gun dropped begrudgingly and he waited for Foley to shoot him dead. As he expected, Foley's gun sprang up and she took aim swiftly.

86.

' Captain Foley! Captain Foley! ' Tyran yelled. ' Tyran yelled.

This time Foley gritted her teeth and jammed the pistol back into her holster.

She turned on Tyran furiously.

'This man almost killed '

' Almost Almost,' Tyran cut her up. 'This man is quite obviously in a great deal of pain. Just look at the state of him. I think Military One have inflicted enough damage on this particular man for one night, don't you?'