Sitting next to a fire, Franc cuts a slice of bread from a stale loaf with the longest of her knives and holds it to the flame with another, the shortest. The heat must be unbearable; I guess that’s the point.
Neen has dug into his rucksack for the last of the coffee. A huge square of goat’s cheese sits on a plate. I don’t ask where it came from, but I expect it’s the same place as the slices of salt goat that sit on a plate beside it.
A jug of water occupies the middle of the table. It’s all Colonel Vijay has been drinking. No doubt he’ll drink some more when he gets back from vomiting.
‘Makes a change,’ says the SIG.
‘What does?’
‘Usually,’ it says, ‘that’s you.’
Serves me right for asking. ‘You all right, sir?’
The colonel nods, and takes his place at the table. I want him here, because I want him to listen to what I say. Picking up my mug, I sip my coffee and look slowly round the table. My words are already agreed, but I wait until I have his attention as well. If the Aux are going to die – and chances are they will – then we might as well tell them why.
Neen stops loading clips, Franc puts her piece of toast onto a plate and sits at the only unclaimed chair. Rachel and Haze glance at each other. Ajac and Iona are off begging bullets from Milo. We need more ammunition. Also, I need them gone, because this is for Neen, Franc, Rachel and Haze only.
What I’m about to say can get them killed. So I’m going to tell them, and then they are going to forget. ‘You understand?’ I ask Neen.
‘Yes, sir.’
I make each one give me an answer in turn.
‘Good,’ I say, when we’re done. ‘Three months ago, a regiment of the Death’s Head mutinied . . . While we were fighting in Ilseville, General Tournier surrendered the Ninth half a spiral arm away. He surrendered rather than go down fighting.’
‘Fuck,’ Neen says.
‘Yeah,’ says my gun. ‘Bet you didn’t know you could do that.’
‘It gets worse,’ says Colonel Vijay. ‘Under the terms of the surrender, the Ninth went over to the Enlightened. General Tournier offered to bring the rest of the Death’s Head with him.’
Silence fills the upper room in the little gatehouse.
Treason, pure and simple. Except nothing about treason is pure, and this is not simple.
‘My father was offered money,’ says Colonel Vijay. ‘A dukedom, his own planet, his own system. All he had to do was declare for the Uplifted.’
‘And OctoV, sir?’ demands Neen.
‘The U/Free would take care of him,’ I say.
‘Will of the people,’ says Colonel Vijay. ‘Freely expressed. If enough Octovians wanted to become Uplifted . . .’
‘Can they do that?’ Rachel asks.
‘They can do anything they like,’ says Haze, the first time I’ve heard him sound anything but envious of the United Free.
Our glorious leader’s answer to all this is elegant in the extreme. On OctoV’s orders, General Jaxx gives his son authority to sign the treaty on the general’s behalf. Colonel Vijay Jaxx will meet General Tournier under a flag of truce. The chosen location is Hekati, an insignificant ex-mining colony on the edge of Enlightened space.
Having met General Tournier, under this flag of truce, Colonel Vijay has orders to kill him. At one stroke, OctoV allows General Jaxx to prove his loyalty, disposes of a threat to his empire, and ensures a treaty will never be signed.
Without General Tournier, the conspiracy collapses. There is, of course, only one problem. Jaxx’s son is a staff officer with zero combat experience.
That is where we come in.
Most of the U/Free think we’re on a cultural mission.
A smaller group think we’re looking for their missing observer. Who must have gone missing during the setting up of the treaty, although they don’t know about that. An even smaller group, who do know about it, believe we’re escorting Colonel Vijay to a pre-agreed location to sign the damn thing. Only OctoV, General Jaxx, his son – and now us – know we are delivering an assassin.
‘So,’ says the SIG, when I finish running it through. ‘Killing that braid was a bad career move?’
That is one way of putting it.
‘What now?’ asks Neen.
‘We find the Enlightened. We get your sister back. We kill General Tournier. We go home . . .’
‘Yeah,’ the gun says sourly. ‘Sounds like a plan to me.’
The drop is swift; the sideways flick as the elevator hits the bottom and begins its travel up the side of Hekati’s shell is brutal enough to make our stomachs lurch. Should have known all those temples were good for something. Makes me wonder what else the colonel forgot to tell me.
Apart from the obvious. He expects to die.
After he panicked in the hub that first time, my killing the braid meant his choice was made for him. Even if Colonel Vijay had wanted to sign a treaty, he couldn’t. Nor could he get within killing distance of General Tournier. Our CO went from honoured guest to hunted enemy with my first blow.
Mind you, what did he expect?
If he didn’t bother to brief us all properly first.
A second lurch tells me we’re climbing one of Hekati’s spokes. I know it’s true, because gravity gets weaker.
‘Arriving in five,’ says the lift. ‘Hope you have a good day.’
‘Wow,’ my gun says. ‘It’s house-trained.’
We ignore the SIG.
Our elevator opens into a corridor that runs all the way round the inside of Hekati’s mirror hub. All the lifts begin here. It is faster to pass through the central hub than trek round inside the ring.
Screens show ships docked within the hub. A bot scuttles across the floor towards a wall and disappears when it sees us. A dozen doors lead to storerooms and arrival halls. A dozen more are on the far side of the ring, out of sight. This is where we killed the braid and the Silver Fist, before taking the first lift down.
‘Check the corpses,’ I tell Neen.
‘Gone, sir,’ he says.
I didn’t really expect them to be there. If the splatter patterns were still there, I’d think the bodies had been removed by the Uplifted. But the blood has gone, along with all the weapons, the uniforms and the bodies themselves. So maybe the spider bots have been busy after all.
‘Find anything useful,’ Colonel Vijay orders.
‘What’s useful?’ whispers Ajac. Neen tells him to use his brain.
‘Sir,’ I say, when we’re safely out of the others’ hearing. ‘Have you met General Tournier before?’
‘No.’ Colonel Vijay shakes his head. ‘But I’ll recognize him.’ That’s not what interests me, although I say this politely.
‘How about his staff?’
The list he reels off means nothing to me. They all have at least two names, some have three and one has four. You need to understand that people I know have only one. Neen is Neen, Franc is Franc . . . I was always just Sven, until I met Aptitude’s mother and she gave me a second name.
‘But will they recognize you, sir?’
‘Doubt it,’ says Colonel Vijay. He looks at me. ‘Sven,’ he says, ‘what’s your point?’
‘I’ll kill General Tournier,’ I tell him.
‘You . . . ?’
‘Sir,’ I say, ‘I’m faster and stronger and we’ll get one crack. We can’t afford a fuck-up.’ I tag sir onto the end of that. Although I doubt it removes the sting.
‘I’ll do it,’ he says. ‘After I sign the treaty.’
‘You won’t be signing any treaty, sir.’
‘Want to tell me why?’
‘Because dead people can’t sign their names.’
Colonel Vijay thinks it’s a threat. He’s wrong.
‘You’re dead, sir. Remember? Pavel killed you that night in the hills. At least that’s what General Tournier believes. We need to leave it like that. Also . . .’
‘Also what?’
‘No way anyone betrays OctoV while I’m around.’
Opening his mouth to protest, he shuts it when I glare at him. ‘Don’t care if it’s pretend,’ I say. ‘Don’t care if it’s a trick. We’re not signing.’