'It was Ben. My husband...'

No reaction from Miles. She was obscurely disappointed.

'IMC contacted me six years ago, just after I'd been accepted on to Project Eden. They told me they'd found some trace of the Hydrax Hydrax, the Inters.p.a.ce ship he vanished on: some wreckage drifting across the trade lanes, or a rumour of a sighting by some newly contacted alien race, or something. They kept stringing me along for months during the training sessions on Earth, holding out false hope, making me feel guilty about the effort they were putting into finding him. They asked for a few little favours a complete crew list for the Project, the name of the vessel we were to ship out on small things, and I felt glad I could do something to repay them. I didn't tell anyone, of course I wasn't stupid, I knew that what I was doing was wrong but all the time I was thinking of Ben, and what it would be like when he came back.'

She sighed deeply, and looked away from Miles out to the harshly glittering stars. A point of light was paralleling their course, moving down towards Moloch. An IMC executive transporter? Probably. Did it matter? Probably not.

'They lied to me, of course, but by the time I realized, it was too late. I was in too deep. They threatened to expose me if I didn't do as I was told.'

She was looking past the stars now, to a young face, framed by black hair, which smiled at her over a gulf of years.

'And there was always a little voice in the back of my mind that said, "Perhaps, just perhaps, he is still alive out there." Justification? Yeah, but I had to believe in something, or I would have gone mad.'

She took a deep breath and pulled herself back to the here*and*now. 'I should have guessed that Legion would want me out of the way as soon as IMC came out in the open. I didn't know he'd suborned Ace, though. She was a nice kid. I wonder what he offered her.'

She frowned as she remembered Ace's dispa.s.sionate face in the Bridge terminus on Belial, sighting along the barrel of her gun. She shivered as she recalled saying, 'Are you going to get on with it, or what?' and Ace replying 'Or what,' then closing her eyes, deliberately aiming wide, firing, and walking away without looking back. Piper didn't know what Ace's motives had been. She wasn't even sure that Ace knew herself. All she knew was that she owed Ace her life.

She glanced over at Miles, trying to gauge his reaction. 'And that's my story. Miles? Miles Miles?'

His face could have been carved out of stone.

'Please Miles, say something. Anything.'

'I'll need your help.' It was as if he had heard nothing she had said.

'To do what?'

He turned to look at her, and the fanatical light in his eyes made her take a sudden step back.

'I'm going back to Paula,' he said. 'And this time I'm going to bring her back. Your virus is still in the starpod software, and I need you to debug it.'

The medlab was locked, but with the sophisticated devices that Ace had managed to retain from the future, that was not a problem. She moved quietly through the shadowed room, amazed at how easy it was to remember the covert reconnaissance drill she had been taught.

The recuperation pods looked like tombs in the ghostly half*light of the sterilizing radiation. The first one the one that had nurtured Christine LaFayette's injured body before she had made her escape attempt was empty. The second one was empty too, but Ace held out no hopes for the wellbeing of Shock Trooper (Third Cla.s.s) Jason Curtis Dommer.

The third pod was empty too.

And the fourth.

Ace quickly checked the remainder of the line. None of the recuperation pods was occupied, either by her friends from Moloch or by anyone else. Judging by the status read*outs, they had been empty for quite some time.

For a moment, she looked around indecisively, and then she left, as quietly as she had arrived.

She had a pa.s.senger waiting.

As the executive transporter rose from Moloch's icy surface and set course for Belial, Alex Bannen gave it no more than a cursory glance. He was too concerned with navigating across the treacherous landscape. Ace had used some c.o.c.k*and*bull story about incompatibility of airlocks to justify dropping him in an ill*fitting s.p.a.cesuit a hundred yards from the translucent blister of the Bridge terminus. She hated him. They all hated him, but he would have his revenge.

High above him, the tordoidal shape of the Lift was gliding down the gilded ray of the Bridge. As Bannen plunged into the soft skin of the terminus, he wondered briefly whether he should have waited for it, rather than submit himself to the indignities of the executive transporter. The uncertainty lasted only for a moment, until he remembered the rush of self*respect that he had felt when he ordered Ace to take him to Legion. No, he had authority now. He didn't need to rely on the vagaries of an alien technology that was several millennia past its sell*by date.

Warming power fantasies filled his mind as he quitted the Bridge terminus, found his way to the head of the Pit and was swirled down the shining path towards Moloch's interior. It was only as he stepped from the Pit and made his way through the deserted Moloch Base that the stench of burning organic matter pulled him from his dreams.

Moloch was ablaze.

As Bannen walked out of Moloch Base and entered the clearing in the forest, he saw IMC troopers standing around its periphery with flamers. The diaphanous trees were burning, their tendrils flailing the air wildly, trailing sparks behind them and wailing thinly, like a jungle of leaky balloons. Greasy columns of smoke rose slowly up into the air, curved into widening spirals by the anomalous air currents of Moloch's interior.

Bannen watched, amazed and oddly aroused, as the flames spread through the forest, moving upwards around the interior until it seemed as if he were standing at the centre of the lowest circle of h.e.l.l. The troopers moved in deeper, long flames licking from their weapons. Robotic construction units were busy erecting an IMC office complex on the razed ground.

'You want to tell me that arrangements have been made for your excursion to Lucifer's zelanite ocean,' said a multiplicity of voices behind him, 'but that you need certain items from IMC which have not been forthcoming.'

'How do you know?' Bannen stuttered as he turned. Legion was looking almost normal: four thin, multi*jointed legs supporting a th.o.r.n.y husk of a body with one magnificent, black and violet eye.

'I know.'

A flock of translucent creatures burst from the branches of the trees and made a break for the centre of Moloch. There was a flurry of activity amongst the troopers as they exchanged bets, then the things began to explode in showers of sparks as they were fired upon. As the last one burst like a firework, money exchanged hands amid much laughter.

'When will the dwarf*star alloy derivative be ready?' Bannen asked hesitantly. He wasn't sure quite how far he could push Legion. Still, the alien had obviously realized Bannen's leadership potential, and needed him to keep the rest of the Project Eden team in line.

'Time...' Legion sighed. 'You humans think it is so important. You and your pathetic power fantasies. Bishop and his obsession with an ideal. Ace and her mysterious mission from the future, thinking that she can stay aloof from our mission here. If you could see the universe from my perspective, you would realize how meaningless it all is. Leave me, Bannen.'

'But, Legion '

The IMC leader's body leaned towards Bannen until the huge eye was level with his face. The eye split into a thousand silver globules that chased each other round Legion's body.

'Leave me,' it chorused.

As Bannen scuttled back towards the Pit, and the interminable wait for the Lift back to Belial, a small seed of paranoia sprouted in his mind. Was Legion really committed to helping him investigate Lucifer, or was it just stringing him along, excluding him from something bigger?

Righteous indignation filled him. He had debated about whether to tell Legion what he knew of the true purpose of the Mushroom Farm controls, but the alien could whistle for it now.

Chuckling, Bannen walked past the entrance to the Atmospheric Vehicle Research Laboratory without seeing Miles Engado and Piper O'Rourke sink back into the shadows.

In their plush, oak*lined cell on the Insider Trading Insider Trading, Bernice and Christine were just putting the final touches to their escape attempt. Christine had pulled down the floating light*fittings with her one good arm, and Bernice had taken out some of her aggression on the heavy mahogany table by smashing its legs off.

'Okay, bring those things over here,' Bernice said.

Christine moved carefully across the room. Holding the null*gray units down under the tablecloth, she pa.s.sed them to Bernice. With deft movements, the archaeologist retrieved them and strapped them securely beneath the table with napkins. The table wobbled: rising into the air in fits and starts as each unit was fitted. Eventually, the table was hovering unsteadily in the centre of the room.

Bernice gestured to it. 'All aboard the Skylark Skylark,' she chanted, and climbed on. The table rocked alarmingly.

Christine extended a wary hand. 'Are you sure this thing's safe?'

'I very much doubt it.'

'How rea.s.suring.'

Bernice grabbed the hand and pulled. Christine clambered on to the table and slid across it on her knees. They stared at each other for a moment or two.

'Well, what now?' Christine said.

'Let's rock and roll.' Bernice reached under the table and tilted one of the null*gray units away from the door. The graviton field interacted with the far wall and the table began to move, slowly at first, but gathering speed quickly until it was hurtling towards the door, too fast for Christine to do anything but hang on and pray.

The door exploded outwards in a shower of splinters; by the time they hit the floor, Bernice, Christine and the table were half*way down the corridor.

Chapter Seventeen.

Having examined the files on Alex Bannen's unmanned workstations near the door to the Mushroom Farm, the Doctor and Bishop moved deeper into the forest of glimmering silver pillars.

The Doctor said quietly, 'Somewhere in here are the last pieces of the puzzle of Lucifer.' He poked into the shadows with his umbrella, skipping backwards with an embarra.s.sed smile when a hundred columns began to glow in shifting colours. 'We have to solve the puzzle if we're to protect it.'

'From IMC?'

'From anyone who wants to exploit it.'

Bishop frowned. 'Why should you want to protect it?'

'How much do you know of Amerindian history, Trau Bishop?'

'I fail to see what relevance the science of social anthropology has at this juncture.'

The Doctor shook his head sadly. 'Put it like this: you do still believe in the concept of justice for the innocent, I presume?'

'Would I be here if I didn't?'

'A moot point.' The Doctor dismissed the counter*question out of hand. 'But I'll take it as a "yes".'

'And?'

'And... that's all.' The Doctor strode off into the forest of glimmering stalks. Bishop suppressed an angry glare as he hurried after him.

Behind them both came a third set of footsteps. Quiet, military footsteps.

It seemed to Teal Green that he and Cheryl Russell had wasted all their time since escaping from Miles's office ducking and weaving. IMC troopers were everywhere: guarding the rooms where the remnants of the Project Eden team were being held, escorting IMC scientists and economic a.n.a.lysts around the Base, and lounging around watching p.o.r.nographic simularities in the refectory. The two of them had scuttled from closet to ventilation duct, from generating room to kitchen, always one step ahead of capture, always one step away from finding an unguarded way of getting to the Mushroom Farm and the Doctor. No time to think; just enough time to react.

Teal slumped to the ground as the bulkhead behind him swung shut. 'Where to now, boss?'

Cheryl, crouching on the grilled flooring like a cornered animal, just snarled.

'Fine,' he said with a panicky nonchalance. 'Just asking.'

There was a soft hiss.

The wall beside his head blistered and ran.

'Down!' Cheryl shoved Teal away and fell in the opposite direction as another bolt sped between them, smashing into the wall with a hiss of vaporizing metal.

She began to crawl along the corridor as a trooper moved towards her. She wasn't sure, but she thought she recognized him from the corporate takeover. Three metres away, Teal had clambered to his feet and was beginning to run.

Immediately, the trooper swung the barrel of his gun to cover the power technician. 'n.o.body move!'

'Give me a break,' Teal muttered as he ducked into a side corridor and vanished from sight.

Cursing, Cheryl was left alone facing the trooper.

He moved closer.

He was smiling.

'Allow me to introduce myself,' he said, the smile widening. Cheryl began to get to her feet.

'Not so fast! Stay on your knees. That's better. Now then, as I was saying, Jay Ardamal... at your service service.'

Cheryl gazed upwards into the barrel of Ardamal's gun. She looked beyond it to his smile and his even white teeth and the blank desire in his eyes.

She shuddered. 'All right, you've got me; I surrender. I want to see Legion. Take me to him it now.'

'Oh, I'll take you to see Legion all right. But first, I think a little interrogation interrogation is in ' is in '

Teal Green burst out of the side corridor holding a solid plastic casing prised from a length of the cable conduit. Screaming wildly, he swung the cover in a short, vicious arc, which connected with the side of Ardamal's helmet. The IMC man dropped without a sound.

Cheryl scrambled to her feet. 'Thanks, Teal. You can stop screaming now.'

'Oh. Er... right.' Teal gazed stupidly at the plastic conduit cover, and the large dent it had sustained. 'I don't reckon that's going to go back on the pipe without a bit of '

'Stop babbling, Teal.' Cheryl bent to retrieve Ardamal's gun. 'Let's get going and find the Doctor, before another one of these goons finds us.'

'Yeah. Right.' With shaky steps, Teal followed Cheryl down the corridor.

Leaning casually on his umbrella, the Doctor gazed down into the vast depression in the floor of the Mushroom Farm. With its metres*high layer of control units, the landscape looked like nothing so much as a small valley, complete with undergrowth and trees, sculpted entirely from glinting chrome.

'Obviously this is some kind of nexus, a meeting point...' the Doctor mused. 'But of what? A control point? A fuse box? Maybe...'

He shaded his eyes from the myriad reflections and looked further into the valley. About half a kilometre away was the slim, vertical column of the Pit. At that distance, it resembled the trunk of a huge tree, climbing ever upwards and vanishing into the high bank of silver clouds that shielded the rock ceiling. Its surface rippled with intermittent tentacles of pale yellow flame which coloured the surrounding landscape a deep bronze.