'Bloody Dragon,' said Chaline. By her expression when he asked her how things were proceeding, Cormac had already surmised she was not happy.

'Was there damage?'

'No damage to the runcible,' she said, glaring at him.

Cormac cursed himself. Was he so inured to death? 'I was sorry to hear about… the—'

'Her name was Jentia. She was a bloody good technician.'

'I'm sorry'

'What are you going to do? Do you actually care about anything? It killed her - as good as murdered her. It could have killed us all, and it may well have killed the inhabitants of Samarkand. That Darson was probably right.'

'How would you suggest I go about arresting a half-million-ton alien psychopath?'

Chaline turned away for a moment. When she turned back again, it was with a deprecatory smile twisting her lips. 'That was irrational of me,' she said.

'Understandable, but you see the problems I am faced with? I… it's part of the reason I—'

'Yes,' Chaline interrupted. 'You and me both. Let's leave it… Do you know what we saw Dragon doing before the probe was destroyed?'

'Throwing a tantrum, blowing mountains apart,' he replied with some relief.

'Yes, and everything else down there. It is geostationary over the blast-site. I had hoped to use some of the remaining installations there. Last we saw, it was destroying them.'

'By accident?'

'You could say that, I suppose. That shaft was hit as well: sealed under a pile of rubble and molten rock.' Was Dragon really just throwing a tantrum? Whatever it was, it ceased twenty hours later.

'Weapons charged and ready to fire,' said the innocuous voice of Hubris. Those weapons were what Cam had hinted might be used to excavate the artefact: to blow away two kilometres of rock. They were now directed towards the curve of Samarkand from where Dragon approached, silhouetted against the dim sun like some fighting machine from Earth's bloody past. The weapons could be used now; at this distance it was possible to prevent impact and not be damaged by flashback.

'Open a channel,' said Cormac. 'Let's see what it wants.'

'Dragon accelerating at three Gs,' said Hubris.

'We can't stand another collision yet,' said Chaline.

'Dragon, if you come closer than one hundred kilometres we will fire on you. This is our perimeter,' said Cormac.

'Dragon slowing… two hundred and seventy kilometres… two hundred and fifty…'

'If it looks as if it's building up to let loose another charge, fire on it anyway,' Cormac told Hubris, leaving the channel open so Dragon would hear.

'Where is it? Where is it?' boomed Dragon's voice over the speakers.

'Where is what, Dragon?'

'The criminal! Where is the criminal?'

'We do not know about any criminal. We came here to investigate the destruction of the Samarkand runcible, and the consequent deaths often thousand people.'

'—one hundred and fifty kilometres… one hundred and forty…'

When Dragon spoke next, its voice had dropped to a conversational level. 'It killed your people. I tried to stop it, Ian Cormac, but it escaped and killed your people. The confinement vessel should have held it.'

Cormac turned and looked at Cam. 'Confinement vessel?'

Cam shrugged. 'What the hell would have needed adamantium to confine it? It must have been quite something, and to break out…'

Dragon answered his question. 'The creature confined was a Maker. Its kind made me. It is a criminal… In your limited way, you would call it psychopath. It is an energy creature.'

Cormac looked at Chaline. 'Psychopath,' he said.

To Dragon he said, 'This Maker, it made the nanomy-celium that damaged the runcible buffers?'

'It did. I picked up readings that indicated anomalies in this sector and, knowing the confinement vessel was here, I sent my creatures, by way of your runcibles, to investigate. They came here after the Maker escaped its vessel. It left the mycelium to destroy your runcible and prevent them following.'

Cormac closed the channel momentarily. 'It ties with what you found out about that guardian,' he said to Mika. 'Same technology as Dragon uses. That's plausible if its kind made Dragon.'

Mika said, 'Plausibility does not denote truth.'

'It does not, and of course there are your thoughts on what Dragon might or might not make,' said Cormac, looking at her meaningfully.

'That was… speculation,' Mika admitted, a pained expression on her face. 'A confinement vessel for some kind of energy creature would of necessity not be biofactured.'

'By any method we know,' Cormac added.

Mika's pained expression became one of annoyance. 'Quite,' she said, not meeting his eyes.

Cormac nodded and opened the channel again. 'What do you mean by "energy creature" and where is it now?'

'Its substance is mainly gaseous, and it is held together by lattices of force much like your shimmer-shields. I do not know where it is now. It has escaped via your runcibles.'

Cormac closed the channel again. 'Do you notice a certain lack of resemblance to previous Dragon dialogue?' he said to them all.

Mika said, 'It is answering your questions directly.'

'Precisely. That makes me very suspicious.'

He reopened the channel. 'Dragon, there is little we can do about this creature now. We came here to install a new runcible, and we wish to set about this work. Have you finished scorching Samarkand?' He could not keep the sarcasm from his voice.

Dragon took a long time replying. 'The criminal must be found. The danger to your kind is great. It has taken ten thousand lives. Next time it might take millions.'

'I repeat: there is little we can do about this now. We need the runcible installed so that communications can be opened with the grid. Then perhaps some way can be found to trace this Maker. Tell me, in what ways is it vulnerable?'

'You have devices… Your proton weapons, contra-terrene bombs…'

'These will kill it?'

'If they do not kill it, they will hurt it sufficiently to make it run. It knows your runcibles now. It will run for them.'

'But why should we want it to run?'

'So it goes somewhere else.'

This was more like the Dragon of old: it was playing semantic games with life-and-death issues. Cormac paused for a moment of thought before continuing.

'Dragon, what did you intend to do had the Maker been here, and free from its containment vessel, when you arrived?'

'Now you have a grasp of the basics, Ian Cormac.'

'You would have killed it here, then. And you still can,' said Cormac. Then he added, 'We have a runcible to install now.'

'I will not hinder you. But you may take onboard my creatures. They will assist you. They will obey every command. This I offer in reparation.'

'Accept or die,' whispered Thorn.

Cormac did not like this. He felt, as he always felt with Dragon, that a lot was not being told. He especially did not like an offer of reparation that was not open to negotiation. Should he refuse, and risk more of the wrath they had just witnessed? He let the thought slide, and in that moment decided there was one more question that needed an answer.

'Dragon, where is… the rest of you?'

The reply came slowly. 'We are at the four corners of your galaxy, Ian Cormac.'

Cormac thought how apposite this was. He visualized star maps with little arrows pointing to the darkness at the edge of the galaxy, and there written the words: 'Here be dragons.'

'An object has been launched from Dragon towards us.'

'Scan it. If it looks suspicious, destroy it.'

'It contains the two dracomen.'

'OK, bring them in,' said Cormac. There seemed little else to do. He was not about to start becoming argumentative with Dragon just as he was beginning to get some answers, truth or not. He closed the channel with the alien, and turned to Chaline.