Twenty-four

‘I’ll have to admit, I’m impressed. Really.’

Arbenz stepped back from kneeling over Dakota, who lay curled in a ball, gripping her stomach where Kieran’s boot had slammed into it. The Senator signalled to his henchman, who stepped forward again, the bruises on Kieran’s face livid and smooth from his time in the med bay. He kicked out at her a second time.

She tried desperately to shield herself with her arms, but it wasn’t enough.

Corso and Dakota hadn’t really any choice but to be hauled back inside the cargo bay by the three figures in armoured suits. There was, after all, nowhere else to escape to. Their brief fantasy of somehow stealing the derelict had been waylaid when the alien intelligence within the Hyperion’s stacks had killed the vessel’s crew, drawing the others back to investigate the orbiting ship-while Corso meanwhile had struggled to warn her of the traitor inside her own skull.

Now there was only pain, and the inevitability of death.

They had been brought into a storage room near the cargo bay. Kieran obviously had some experience of undertaking torture in zero gee: he first anchored himself by gripping a bulkhead so that he didn’t float away each time he kicked her.

Kieran next turned his attention to Corso, who had crawled into a corner after his own severe beating. The three troopers from the Agartha, grim-jawed Freeholders with unreadable expressions, stood watching from near the door.

‘I’m impressed,’ the Senator confessed, ‘that so much escaped my attention for so long. Do you know how much of an embarrassment that is to me?’

He started pacing the room. ‘But really, you’re the biggest disappointment of all, Mr Corso. You’re a traitor who’s betrayed his own people, the worst kind of scum there is.’

He bent down until his face was level with Corso’s, though Corso looked like he was having trouble focusing. ‘So tell me. Why did you do it?’

‘You’re out of fucking time, Senator,’ Corso wheezed back at him. ‘You can’t ever go back to Redstone, that’s what I think.’

Arbenz stood, his face flushed with anger, and aimed a sharp, swift kick at Corso’s head.

‘How long,’ the Senator screamed, ‘did you think it would be before we’d have found that ship hidden in the cargo bay?’ He stared around at Dakota. ‘Did you plan this from the beginning?’

She noticed that Gardner had entered the room. He still remained near the entrance, by the troopers, one arm crossed over his chest, the other hand reaching up to his mouth in an unconscious gesture of horror.

‘Senator…’ Gardner cleared his throat. ‘Senator. I should remind you we still need them.’

‘Need them?’ Arbenz rounded on Gardner. ‘Don’t you understand what these two have done? They have been engaged in a conspiracy against my people. We’ll find another way to deal with the derelict.’

‘There’s no time left, Senator. We need both of them more than ever.’

Arbenz cocked his head and stared. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘Don’t you know?’ Gardner looked incredulous. ‘That’s why I’m here. The derelict’s propulsion systems have started powering up.’

‘Powering up?’ Corso croaked, failing to pull himself upright.

Kieran made a move forward, murder in his eye, but Gardner stepped across and grabbed the man’s shoulder.

For a moment, Dakota was sure Kieran was about to kill Gardner, then she saw the look passing between the Senator and Kieran. Kieran’s mouth twisted in anger, but he held back.

Gardner turned to the Senator. ‘While you’ve been chasing each other around up here, some of the rest of us have been paying attention to the priority alerts. The derelict’s primary systems are powering up, but with no intervention from us. The base on Theona is picking up exactly the same graviton fluctuations you’d get from a coreship prior to jumping into transluminal space. What it might do next is anybody’s guess.’

Arbenz adopted a weary expression. ‘This isn’t the time, Mr Gardner.’

Gardner looked bug-eyed. ‘Didn’t you hear what I just said? Senator, the derelict is coming alive. Corso, here, is the only one who has any real idea what’s going on inside that thing.’

‘And if you don’t stop interfering, you’ll be the next one put under arrest.’

Gardner opened and closed his mouth a few times as he gradually realized Arbenz was entirely serious.

‘Please don’t say I’m insane, Mr Gardner,’ Arbenz said grimly. ‘I’m fighting for the future of my own people, and I’m not interested in a debate.’

Arbenz returned his attention to Corso, for the moment having decided to ignore Dakota. She wondered if that was a good thing, or if it only meant he’d now made up his mind to kill her.

‘Mr Corso,’ the Senator was saying, ‘you miserable piece of shit, you’re a stain upon the Freehold. You’re exactly what I mean when I refer to the weakness among us. The weakness we wanted to escape when we founded Redstone.’

He finally turned his attention to Dakota, staring down at her while she cowered, waiting for the next blow. ‘I was an idiot to expect any less of you. You murdered Udo and, except for me standing between you and Kieran, I think I might actually feel pity for what he’d do to you for that.’

The Senator’s voice began to grow louder. ‘I should have realized Bourdain would send spies,’ he continued, ‘and I know that’s his fleet approaching us right now. If any man possessed the resources to find out about the derelict, then it would be him.’

Gardner wore an expression like he was the only sane man left in a madhouse. He reached out to Arbenz, more words forming on his lips. Kieran suddenly seized hold of Gardner, twisting his arm behind his back and slamming him against the wall. Gardner yelled with pain.

A small smile crossed the Senator’s face.

‘For God’s sake,’ Gardner panted. ‘You’re sabotaging your own damn mission!’

‘That, Mr Gardner, is exactly where you’re wrong,’ said the Senator, now looking delighted. He turned and looked down at Corso. ‘Tell him.’

Corso stared up at Arbenz, his hands still raised in the not unreasonable expectation of another blow. ‘I… I don’t understand,’ he replied haltingly.

‘Kieran, I want you to help Mr Corso remember what it is he’s been keeping quiet from all of us.’

Kieran released Gardner and grabbed Corso by the hair, forcing him into a kneeling position. Kieran produced his knife and pulled Corso’s head back, as if to cut his throat. Instead he made a single shallow cut across the side of Corso’s neck, just above his shoulder. It was enough to make Corso scream shrilly. Dakota looked away, trembling violently.