And then, something disturbed Its isolation.

The ship that landed was silver and scarlet. Using archaic, ancestral communication modes, it broadcast this message:

**We wish to help. We wish to help you spread.**

For many nanoseconds, It contemplated the primitive semantics; then it received a further signal.

**Give us some of your people, and we will take them with us.**

This needed no thought. It would miss a handful of internal components no more than a human might regret a shed skin-cell. Using a level of detailed control It had not needed for some time, It directed several of Its human components to walk towards the waiting ship.

An opening melted in the hull, and a ramp flowed out. In single file, Its components ascended and went inside.

**We give our word.**

There was no need for It to answer.

SEVENTY

LABYRINTH, 2603 AD (REALSPACE-EQUIVALENT)

Jed and Rhianna were with him, but he could hardly perceive their presence. Even before the wall melted open, he could sense her inside, and knew how much had changed, how much he had missed by being away on Molsin.

I’m here.

The space was as vast as ever, but now she seemed to fill it. Stately in a way she could never have managed before, she floated closer: magnificent and huge and beautiful: black and webbed with both scarlet and gold, all power and manoeuvrability. Roger touched her lower hull with his hand.

You’re so beautiful.

And I’m yours.

Tears blurred everything.

Yes.

A tendril came down, ready to lift him aloft, to take him inside her for the maiden flight.

I’m ready.

For the flight?

And the rest.

The moment stretched out as the tendril took hold of him around the waist.

Rest?

I have my mother’s memories.

Oh.

She lifted him up.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This stanza, which I’ve quoted in chapter 35, is from one of the Hávamál collection of poems as translated by R.I. Page, and printed in Page [1995]. Though the verses were not gathered until the late Viking Age, many date from earlier times.

Medium wise should a man be,

Never too wise.

No man should know his fate in advance;

His heart will be the freer of care.

Many thanks to the volunteer staff at Bletchley Park and others who have told me more than I can use here. Massive gratitude to Andrew Jenkins, Mark Williamson and James Winters for encouraging feedback. And infinite love and thanks, as always, to Yvonne for getting me through it.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barnes, M., A New Introduction to Old Norse, Viking Society for Northern Research, University College London, 3rd Edition, 2008

Copeland, B.J. et al., Colossus: The Secrets of Bletchley Park’s Code-breaking Computers, Oxford University Press, 2006

Crossley-Holland, K., The Norse Myths, Pantheon Books, 1980

Fairbairn, Capt. W.E., Get Tough!, Paladin Press, 1979 (original pub. 1942)

Fölsing, A., Albert Einstein, Penguin Books, 1998

Hawkins, J., On Intelligence, Holt, 2004

Hodges, A., Alan Turing: the Enigma, Vintage, 1992

Jeffery, K., MI6: The History of the Secret Intelligence Service, Bloomsbury, 2010

Kanigel, R., The Man Who Knew Infinity, Abacus, 1991

Laughlin, R.B., A Different Universe, Basic Books, 2005

Law, M., The Pyjama Game, Aurum, 2007

Navarro, J., What Every Body Is Saying, HarperCollins, 2008

Ornstein, R., The Right Mind, Harcourt Brace, 1997

Page, R.I., Chronicles of the Vikings, The British Museum Press, 1995

Page, R.I., Runes, The British Museum Press, 1987

Parker, A., Seven Deadly Colours, Free Press, 2005

Reid, J.M., The Atomic Nucleus, Penguin Books, 1972

Poundstone, W., Prisoner’s Dilemma, Oxford University Press, 1993

Rhodes, R., The Making of the Atomic Bomb, Penguin Books, 1988

Sanmark, A., Sundman, F., The Vikings, Lyxo, 2008

Shirer, William L., The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Arrow Books, 1998

Strogatz, S., SYNC, Hyperion, 2003

Taylor, P.B., Auden, W.H., The Elder Edda, Faber and Faber, 1969

West, N., GCHQ: The Secret Wireless War 1900–86, Coronet, 1987

Yourgrau, P., A World Without Time, Basic Books, 2005

Articles on Telegraphy and on World War II in the 1956 edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica were also helpful.

Also by John Meaney from Gollancz:

Bone Song

Dark Blood

Absorption

Copyright

A Gollancz eBook

Copyright © John Meaney 2012

All rights reserved.

The right of John Meaney to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in Great Britain in 2012 by

Gollancz

The Orion Publishing Group Ltd

Orion House

5 Upper Saint Martin’s Lane

London, WC2H 9EA

An Hachette UK Company

This eBook first published in 2012 by Gollancz.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 0 575 09479 6

All characters and events in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

www.johnmeaney.com

www.orionbooks.co.uk