The shuttle hit him hard enough to spread him all over the inside of the tunnel like pâté.

30

She follows the old man as he hurries through the facility, making for the hidden exit to Monstrosity Square-the one they used to sneak her through for their little Twenty Questions torture sessions. He knows the value of discretion when the Network comes a-rampaging armed to the teeth. She lets him get all the way to the doorlock before she stops him.

‘Hold it right there!’ She bathes him in the Bull Thrummer’s targeting beam.

He doesn’t flinch, she admires that. Instead he pulls himself up to his full height and turns on her. ‘I don’t know what you’re trying to do here,’ he says, all clipped and educated, not moving a muscle. ‘But I can assure you I am not someone you want to interfere with.’

She swings the Bull Thrummer up and evaporates a chunk of roof above his head. Concrete particles drift down over his tall, black-cloated shoulders like microscopic dandruff.

He coughs and splutters as the dust settles. ‘You have no idea who you’re dealing with. Your Network friends aren’t going to save you. I can make you disappear, just like that!’ He snaps his long, surgeon’s fingers and she laughs.

‘I’ve already disappeared.’ She pulls a pebbled disk from her jumpsuit pocket, then twists the Palm Zapper’s power dial down to ‘LIGHT STUN’, keeping the Thrummer on him at the same time. ‘Now it’s your turn.’

He sticks his chest out like a fighting cock. ‘Do you have any idea who I am?’

‘You,’ she says, pointing the Palm Zapper at his face, ‘are Tomuku Kikan. You stole my research, you stole my face, you stole my life.’ She smiles: a cold, sharp, hard-edged thing. Broken glass. ‘Did you really think you’d get away with it Tomuku? Did you?’ Her finger caresses the trigger gently and little sparks dance around the disk’s rim. ‘You should have known better than that.’

‘Who…’ There’s uncertainty in his eyes now. ‘Who are you?’

She just smiles and shoots him.

The shuttle didn’t even slow down. It sped away down the main line, the stanchion lights fading out behind it. Will stood in the growing darkness with chunks of Ken Peitai congealing on his jumpsuit.

The sound of small arms fire filtered down the tunnel behind him, punctuated by the unmistakable clatter of Whompers and Thrummers. Will turned and staggered back towards the shuttle platform and the orange flashing emergency lighting.

When he’d got as far as the crashed shuttle he slumped back against the twisted metal. The wreckage groaned in sympathy.

‘Where’s the wee shite?’ Brian swung his Whomper across the tunnel behind Will.

Will looked down at his splattered and stained jumpsuit. ‘I think that’s his ear.’

‘Don’t be a bamheid.’ Brian peered at him. ‘That’s a kidney.’

Will peeled it off the front of his chest and dropped it to the floor. ‘Yeah, you’re probably right.’

A soft ‘thump’ sounded from further up the tunnel and what was left of the platform doors exploded in a whirlwind of glass and plastic. Two figures, just visible through the thick pall of dust, picked themselves out of the debris. They tried to return fire, but something large roared, turning them both into a fine red mist.

‘Jesus!’ said Brian. ‘Emily’s no’ takin’ any prisoners.’

Someone stalked out of the ruined doorway onto the platform, a Bull Thrummer growling in their hands.

‘Cat!’ Will clambered to his feet and jogged back up the tunnel towards the murky figure.

‘Hold it right there!’ It wasn’t Cat; it didn’t even sound human.

‘Dickson? That you?’ Will had to squint, the siege weapon’s targeting beam had turned the foamcrete and human dust into solid green soup.

‘On your knees, hands where I can see them!’

Will sank to the floor and did as he was told. Something alien emerged from the mist, all lumpy and misshapen. The figure flipped up its visor and pulled the breather off its face.

‘Lieutenant,’ Dickson said into her throat-mike, ‘I’ve found him.’ She gave Will a small smile and clipped the mask back over her mouth. ‘You can get up now, sir.’

‘Agent Alexander and DS Cameron are back there, near the shuttle wreck. We need to get Jo to a hospital ASAP.’ He pointed at the Bull Thrummer in her hands. ‘There’s another member of my team, a Bluecoat, carrying one of those. She’s still in the facility.’

‘I’ve not seen anyone, but I can ask.’ Dickson put out the call and another strange, alien figure emerged out of the mist. Two gold pips painted on the chitin’s shoulder plates, a glowing digital readout with ‘BRAND’ on the chest. Emily.

The three of them walked back towards the flickering orange hazard lights in uncomfortable silence.

‘The cavalry’s here,’ he told Brian, trying to break the permafrost.

Lieutenant Brand snapped her visor up and nodded. ‘Brian.’

‘Took yer bloody time.’ He winked. ‘No’ got any chips on you, have you? I’m starved.’ The sound of gunfire was less frequent now; only the occasional roar and pop breaking the silence.

‘Greedy bastard…’ Emily looked down at Jo’s battered face and broiled arm, then keyed her throat-mike. ‘Floyd, Patterson, get your arses and a stretcher down to the shuttle bay. I’ve got an injured DS for you.’ She turned and addressed Dickson. ‘You’re on escort duty. See them back to the ship and make sure they go straight to the Royal. I hear they stopped off for a couple of pints and your arse is in a sling.’

‘Yes, ma’am!’

‘Emily…’ Will paused as she turned and stared at him, eyes cold and hard. ‘We’ve got an officer missing, the Blue-coat-’

‘I heard. If she shows up we’ll let you know.’

Dickson and Patterson jogged out of the mist carrying an evac platform. Gently they lifted Jo into place, strapped her in and set off back to the surface, taking Private Dickson and her Bull Thrummer with them.

Emily turned to follow them, but Will held her back.

‘Look, I’m sorry I-’

She ripped the breather from her face. ‘YOU SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME!’

‘I didn’t want-’

‘They put crap under my skin! You knew!’ Her hand struck him like a cannon-shot, snapping his face to one side. ‘Bastard!’

‘What was I supposed to do?’ He spat a long stream of blood at the tunnel floor. ‘If I’d told you they’d have heard. They killed Stein and they damn near killed Jo. They would have come after you too…’

‘You should have told me.’ She pulled the mask back over her face and walked back into the mist. Will watched her disappear.

A large hand settled on his shoulder.

‘Fancy a curry?’

Will sighed. ‘She’s going to hate me for ages, isn’t she?’

‘Come on, let’s go see if we can find Cat.’

She breaks an ampoule of halfhead sedative into Kikan’s twitching body. His eyes widen as the chemical takes hold and the shuddering subsides. Now he can’t move, but he can see, and he can hear, and he can feel everything.

Lucky boy.

Hefting Kikan’s limp body over her shoulder is no trouble at all. All those years of hard physical labour have paid off.

It’s a shame she’ll have to leave the Bull Thrummer behind. A lovely toy, but it’s just too big. She can’t carry that and the old man at the same time.

Pity…

Ah well, she’ll just have to buy herself one when she gets to her new home.

She pushes through the door. Outside, Sherman House is a dark silhouette against the sodium-tainted clouds. Doctor Westfield closes the door behind her, then slips away into the rainy night with her new best friend.

She has a lot of fun activities planned for Mr Kikan.

The facility was full of dust. Down in the interrogation room a handful of technicians and plainclothes military types were lying face down on the floor, hands snared behind their backs. Someone had thrown a cloat over Henderson’s headless body, but bits of Lincoln were still stuck to the roof, floor, walls…