'Aiden?'

Aiden's head lifted slowly and he stared at Cormac as if he did not recognize him. He blinked once, slowly, and it seemed for a moment as if he was going to ask him something. Then Aiden's shoulders straightened, his breathing emulation restarted, and he slowly stood up.

'Just enough to knock out our systems,' he said, and looked down at Cento. Cento was slower to reassume his guise of humanity. First he practised a grin which was a parody, then his breaming emulation restarted and he too got up. Cormac turned away from them and went over to Thorn.

'Thorn?'

Thorn lay flat on his back, staring up at the sky. There were burns on his clothing and there was a strong smell of burnt hair about him. His beard, Cormac noted, was in need of some reshaping. His helmet lay beside him with its glass still polarized. His weapon lay some distance away. A trickle of blood had congealed below his nose.

'About stun three,' he said tighdy, and looked up at Cormac. Cento and Aiden passed Cormac on either side, reached down simultaneously, and pulled Thorn to his feet.

'Gave about as good as it got,' said Thorn from wobbly legs, men, freeing his right arm from Cento, ran his hand over his beard and frowned.

Cormac watched the three contemplatively: the only real injuries seemed to be to their dignity. 'It knocked you all down because you fired on it. Having the ability to knock out Aiden and Cento means it had the ability to kill you, Thorn… Tell me, Aiden, would you say that creature was completely constituted of energy fields?'

'That would not be possible. It must have some matter distribution for the fields to anchor themselves to, even if it is very diffuse. Dragon said it was partially gaseous.'

'Then I know how to kill it. Just as it knew precisely how to kill us. Come on.' As he walked back to the sky-bikes, Cormac pulled out his comunit. 'Sergeant, put the carrier down at our camp. Get your men down, too, and form a perimeter again.' He shut off the unit as the sergeant passed on his orders, then turned to Thorn. 'Thorn, I want you to mink about this. When we went down that shaft a monster attacked us, and we fired on it.'

'Yes,' said Thorn.

'No, you see there's the rub. It may have come charging towards us, and it may have seemed intent on attack, but it did not scrap Cento nor kill Gant until we fired on it.'

'That's hard,' said Thorn.

'That's fact,' said Cormac. 'Maybe it intended to attack us - we don't know. We do know, however, that it was an organic machine dying from the cold.'

Cormac gestured to the bikes, and Aiden and Cento mounted them. As Thorn took the pillion behind Aiden he asked, 'What are you saying?'

'I'm saying I'm going to get to the truth of all this. You see, we've only heard one side of the story, so I want the rest of it.' He pulled his comunit as Cento took their bike into the sky. 'Mika, meet us in the carrier, will you? I'll be needing your input.'

'You'll be needing my input.'

Cormac grinned at the inferred question and turned the unit off. It could be a crippling fault, that inability to ask a direct question. He looked ahead and down, and saw the carrier landing. The diminutive figure of Mika was angrily striding across to it. The other sky-bikes were coming down in the forest around the encampment. When Cento landed, Cormac quickly hopped off and gestured to the other three.

'Come with me.'

He headed for the carrier, glanced at Mika, who was waiting beside it, then pulled open the door and stuck his head inside.

'Sergeant, if you and your man there could give us a moment?'

The sergeant and the turret gunner left the carrier with expressions of bewilderment on their faces.

'What… what was that thing, sir?' the sergeant asked.

'A dragon,' said Cormac, 'a real live dragon.' As soon as the others were inside, he closed the door on the sergeant's bewilderment. He looked at Stanton, still secured in place, and then gestured for the others to sit. He paced across the floor between them, his forefinger tapping his chin and a thoughtful expression on his face.

'Right… Aiden, I want a direct line of communication with Samarkand II. Set it up with Viridian. I want Blegg and Chaline on the other end, soonest.'

'We should be able to set up the link with this carrier's transceiver.'

'Do it, then.'

Aiden stood and moved to the front of the carrier, and was soon in contact with Viridian. Cormac turned to Thorn, Cento and Mika.

'Tell me, what are your impressions? And you, Thorn, bear in mind what I said to you.'

Thorn surprised him by replying immediately. 'Seemed to me the p-beams stung it a little, or just surprised it. It defended itself from an irritation. It was more interested in the dracomen.'

'That speaks for itself,' said Mika.

'Those two grabbed the AGC - why, do you think?' Cormac asked her.

'Judging from what I learnt about their behaviour before, I thought they were out to defend you.'

'That car had a roof before. I take it they ripped it off?'

'Yes, one moment they were just standing mere, the next they were tearing the roof off the car. There was a weapon under the seat. Scar went straight to it. They ignored me. I was clearly not going to interfere. Anything that can tear bubble-sheet like that…'

Cormac looked thoughtful. 'The weapon was a laser carbine. A rather ineffectual thing to use in the circumstances, when we are thinking in terms of proton guns.'

'Perhaps they just did not realize a laser carbine would not hurt it,' said Cento.

Cormac eyed the android for a moment. 'No, I think they understood the situation perfectly. I also think we're focusing on the wrong thing. The weapon they used is not the issue. What we have to ask is why did they tear the roof off that AGC?'

'To give themselves a greater field of fire,' said Cento.

'No again, on that. They only had one target.'

It was Thorn who gave the required answer. 'So the Maker could see them,' he said.

'Right,' said Cormac. 'I think we're starting to get somewhere now. Those dracomen were here to get to the Maker. To get it defensive.' He looked at Thorn. 'Just like that thing in the tunnel… maybe.' Thorn looked away from him. 'I think their one purpose is that. Maybe they had another purpose, should I cease to become Dragon's best bet for killing the Maker. I guess we won't know that now.'

'We know Dragon tells lies,' said Thorn.

'Yes, but what we don't know is how many, nor how deep they are. Now, Thorn, the Maker stunned you,

Cento and Aiden. It used a different form of energy for you than for them. Aiden said it used just enough to knock him out. You said it was about stun three that hit you, which is incidentally the maximum safe limit used by ES for crowd control. It was specific, therefore it ascertained what you could take, and was careful not to kill you. Does that strike you as the action of a psychopath?'

'No, but…'

Cormac turned to Cento. 'Would a near speed of light collision kill that creature?'

'Yes, very likely.'

'Aiden, are you through yet?'

'Samarkand II and Blegg are ready, Chaline is a few minutes away.'

'Have you Viridian there?'

'Yes.'

'Ask it where the Maker went.'

There was a brief conversation, and then Aiden turned back from the console. 'Viridian said it moved about two hundred kilometres directly east, then went down into a system of caves there. The Thuriot caverns, before the Thuriot mountains… Hold on, the sergeant just said there was an AGC circling at the edge of detection range just men.'

'One thing at a time,' said Cormac. 'He knows what to do.' He scratched at his head and stared at the wall for a moment. Then he said, 'I want Pelter and this killer android off my back now. This is too critical. I think we'll head east for about a hundred and fifty kilometres, and find a suitable place to put down again.'