But all good things come to an end and, step by step, reality - in time with the flicking of the old-fashioned clock display - re-infiltrated her mind, shredding the timeless place she had been hibernating in since the fast-hovering dart hit her.

As she became aware, and could turn her head, she discovered Esprin nearby, along with a beautiful woman with Asiatic features.

*The drug will destabilise at an exponential rate,' the woman was saying. *Within a minute you will be back to normal.'

She was right. Anneke stretched, felt full sensory input return to her, and realised she was sitting in a chair, unbound.

This woman was very confident.

Anneke eyed her. As the last vestige of the n-doze de-activated from her system through the antidote, a picture clicked into her brain. *You're Sasume. Myoto.'

*Correct.'

*You're working with the Ekud Clan?'

*They operate an emba.s.sy for us.'

*So you're collecting on the fatwa?'

*On the contrary, we bought the fatwa some time ago and had it annulled. That's why no attempts have been made on your life.'

*Then I owe you my thanks. Mr Brown, however, mustn't be very happy with you.'

*He doesn't know it was us.'

*I wouldn't count on it.'

Sasume shrugged. *It doesn't matter, Anneke.'

*How long have I been out?'

*Eighteen hours.'

*Why so long?'

*There have been . . . developments. At first, we intended to rouse you immediately. Then certain matters arose that needed my personal attention.'

*The raid on Heliopolis.'

Sasume nodded. *A most unfortunate affair.'

*I a.s.sume that wasn't you?'

*Why would we raid the financial and computing centre of this galactic sector? Much of our business is transacted through the Netic inst.i.tutions and emporiums of Heliopolis. A great deal of our cash flow has been impacted in this attack. There was also significant loss of life.'

*Brown can't hate you that much.'

*You are perceptive. But Mr Brown is a genius at multi-tasking. Why solve one problem when you can solve two - or three - at the same time?'

*You said there had been developments?'

*The outcry from this incident has been out of proportion to the damage, as awful as that is. But it has been fanned, expertly, into a conflagration. The Companies and Clans are crying for blood. The Confederation of Trading Worlds has rediscovered old fears and older vulnerabilities. Everywhere, people demand something be done, that these renegade pirates be severely dealt with.'

Anneke frowned, thinking. *RIM did nothing, right?'

*As you say, RIM did nothing. Commander Rench did not feel RIM was in a position to respond to this. Certainly he has his own troubles, which the attack on Colonel Ferren delayed, but did not do away with.'

*So somebody else did.'

*You are indeed astute, Ms Longshadow. Your reputation is justified. Some eight hours ago, the Majoris Corporata declared itself openly and attacked a Myotan fleet, less than a pa.r.s.ec from Heliopolis. The fleet was destroyed, though two supposed survivors were pulled from the debris field. These survivors confessed to the attack and the subsequent ma.s.sacre on Heliopolis. With this "evidence", the Majoris Corporata attacked the Myotan home world, using hydrogen and antimatter weapons. The casualties were high though the MC was careful only to strike Company installations with an obvious military function.' Sasume sighed and Anneke realised the woman was profoundly weary. *Essentially, Myoto has been crippled. Our excommunication, which Mr Brown initiated months ago on an intra-company basis, has become a general order of annihilation, approved by RIM's Attorney-General and endorsed by the Sentinels. We are now a renegade Company in the truest sense of the word. Mr Brown has succeeded in declaring open season on us.'

*I'm sorry for your home world losses,' said Anneke. Sasume bowed her head in sorrow. *I take it that Mr Brown has solved some of his other problems?' Anneke continued.

*Indeed. In one brilliant stroke, he has all but destroyed Myoto, demonising us so that he can keep using us as a ready scapegoat whenever he has need. He has also deflected the move to replace Commander Rench, since a change of command right now and the disorganisation that would follow would be dangerous. He has at the same time marginalised RIM, drawing calls for its disenfranchis.e.m.e.nt. It has, after all, failed to deal boldly with the outrageous attack on a peaceful world; and he has all but legalised the outlawed Majoris Corporata . Nor will it be long before -'

*Before people start looking to the MC to solve its problems.'

*Yes. Effectively replacing RIM as the primary legal force in our galaxy.'

*There are still the Sentinels.'

*Perhaps. For myself, I cannot imagine that our Mr Brown has not taken the measure of the Sentinels.

They are, however, an unknown quant.i.ty, even after a thousand years of a duty so obsessive and obscure.'

*Which brings us to why I'm here,' Anneke concluded.

*And that is a simple matter. We would like you to kill Mr Brown.'

Her head still reeling from everything she had heard from the Myotan CEO, Anneke stepped from the hover van two hours later. She found herself in a section of Lykis known as Morenzy, famous as a tourist district. She sought out a hole-in-the-wall cafe, the kind tourists didn't frequent, and settled into a back booth with a strong Ruvian coffee. She needed time to think and had left Esprin behind with the Myotans as part of the deal.

On Anneke's part, she had agreed to place Mr Brown in her sights (exactly where he'd been, in any case, ever since he'd murdered her uncle) and to use whatever Myotan resources Sasume could muster to a.s.sist her in the hunt for the lost coordinates. If she could get these first, or at least prevent Brown from getting them, then the mole's plan would be severely compromised.

Sasume, however, wanted more. Clearly, she felt deeply humiliated by Brown's move. She yearned to hit back, yet militarily Myoto was hamstrung.

*Economically too?' Anneke asked.

Sasume eyed her curiously. *We have resources we may call upon.'

Anneke suggested a dazzlingly bold move. Sasume stared at her in awe. *Truly, Ms Longshadow, you have missed your calling. Such cunning in one so young.'

*Do you think you can handle it?'

*It is possible. I must weigh up the repercussions. Mr Brown would be suitably unpleased.'

*Perhaps it would force him to show his hand, before he's ready.'

*It would force many things. But now I am in your debt. You have shown me a path that I might take to win back face. What may I do for you?'

*You own Metalabs, right?'

Sasume had agreed to place Esprin, already starting to sicken from the poison, in an experimental stasis field being currently developed by Myoto's Metalabs. These fields suspended time and were being trialled in hospitals. The aim was to halt the spread of diseases until a cure was developed or to *freeze' life-threatening injuries until victims could be ferried to operating theatres. Thus, the poison in Esprin's body would be stopped in its tracks until it could be genetically profiled and a permanent antidote derived.

Anneke finished her cup-heated coffee, wondering at Sasume's agenda. That the woman hated Brown and wanted revenge was obvious, but Anneke did not kid herself that the Myotan CEO was as charming and benign as she appeared to be. Very likely, Sasume wanted the lost coordinates for herself so she could restore full power and privileges to Myoto.

Anneke would have to tread carefully. A lot of people were trying to place her under one kind of obligation or another.

Anneke paid for her coffee and left by the rear entrance, startling the cooks and coffee makers. She then took a circuitous route through the city, doubling back, losing herself in crowds, and using cla.s.sified RIM cleansers.

When she finally felt it was safe to do so, she made her way to Enigma, a highly shielded *lost' location beneath Lykis. She desperately needed to talk with Josh and to hear how the code breaking on the first set of coordinates was coming along.

But the face-to-face chat would be a long time commg.

As soon as she stepped into the underground chamber where the main core of Enigma resided, she knew something was wrong. She could smell blood.

Lots of blood.

Instinctively she crouched, which saved her life. An auto-pulse blew a smoking hole in the door near where her head had been. She blasted the device into its component atoms, ran a sensor sweep, located two more b.o.o.by-traps and disabled them.

And then she found the bodies. Grim and silent, and fighting back tears, she checked each of them for signs of life. All were dead.

She found Josh under a desk, weeping, a bag of botchi burgers and booze clutched in his lap. He had a terrible shoulder wound. Before he pa.s.sed out, he looked up at her.

*I went out,' he said. *We were gonna celebrate. You know, we cracked it. The code. I came back and I thought they were playing and then - and then -'

But his chest heaved and he started crying again, and then mercifully he pa.s.sed out. Anneke guessed that an automatic device on one of the *back doors' had caught him.

She called for an ambulance and applied first aid. That's when she noticed that every computer in the place had been torn open and the quantum storage units removed.

THE youth was dying. Worse, he was dying without confessing his sins against Maximus Black.

Just tell me what I want to know,' said Black to the terrified, panting youth strapped to the table, *and all this will end. No more pain. I promise.'

The youth was breathing so hard and fast it sounded like sobbing and his eyes were white, like a panic-stricken animal's. Black did not like this look; it reminded him of long ago. He turned to the Envoy irritably.

*Well? What do you think?'

*I think the subject has told us all he knows.'

*But he knows nothing! He's told us nothing! Where is the second set of coordinates hidden? How do we find it?'

The Envoy did not shrug, but he made a gesture Black had come to read as one.

*Maybe,' snarled Black, *if you hadn't been so zealous in eliminating everybody you found there, we might have more than one survivor!'

*I followed your orders. In any case, why do you a.s.sume there are no more survivors?'

*What?' Black slapped his forehead. What a fool he was. And he called himself a genius? He turned back to the youth on the table.

*Is there anyone who knows the location of the second coordinates?'

*We didn't contact anyone else,' the youth groaned through a miasma of pain.

*I'm well aware that your logs prove that no messages went in or out in the three hours prior to our visit, but that isn't what I asked.' Black touched a b.u.t.ton. Excruciating pain shocked through the youth's limbs. He howled, his body arching. Black tried to ignore the sound of bones cracking. *Care to revise your statement?' josh.Josh knows.'

*And where isjosh? Please don't tell me he's dead.'

*No, no. He went out. For food.'

*Ah. Somebody we missed. Thank you. You may die now.' He touched another b.u.t.ton and the youth slumped, silently. Black eyed the Envoy. *Go back and find this josh. Make sure he still has a pulse when you get him back here. In the meantime, I will have my people rip the QSUs apart.'

*The Enigma encryption is complex.'

*Let me worry about that.'

The Envoy left. Black strode back through the underground complex, pausing in the viral lab to check the latest readings on the Kilroy mutation. It was interesting. Kilroy showed crude signs of rationality, which meant he could respond to limited commands. It was a poor kind of controllability, but would have its uses.

*Keep up the good work, Kilroy,' Black said over the intercom system. The transmogrified human on the other side of the gla.s.s lifted its head at the sound of Black's voice and looked at him. Black could not read its face, or the look in its feverish eyes. Something in him didn't want to.

In a.n.a.lysis, Mika, Karl and Jeera were already at work on the Enigma QSUs, downloading their encrypted contents - millions of gigabytes of data - into Black's mainframe. It was an AI Hub containing some of the most powerful decryption algorithms ever devised.

Despite this, the task would be enormous. If encryption was a science then decryption was an art form, and there were few *artists' of this particular calling who were equal to Black himself So he poured himself a double dose of Ruvian coffee, rolled up his sleeves, straddled a workstation alongside the other three, and set to work. The secret, Black knew, would be to think like the encryptor. Fine in theory, but how did an emotionally stunted computer geek think?

Some hours later, the Envoy reported in.

*We found a secret back entry. The b.o.o.by-traps there were destroyed. Blood spatter suggests one scored a hit.'

*That would be Josh.'

*I have identified the individual. His biometrics indicate he is 1.9 metres in height. The blood spatter is consistent with a shoulder hit of an individual of this height. A man with a similar wound was admitted into surgery at Paxan Heights Hospital three hours ago.'

*Then what are you waiting for?'

*The man was admitted by his sister. Her description fits -'

*Anneke Longshadow's. Naturally. So Anneke must know where the lost coordinates are.'

*Not necessarily.'

*What do you mean?'

*I infiltrated the hospital's records. Given Josh's condition it is unlikely that he would have been coherent enough to convey any rational information.'

*What's to stop him talking as soon as he wakes?'

*He is in a medically induced coma. He will not awaken for at least seventy-two hours.'

*So I have a head start. Lucky me. Okay. Let me give this some thought. We can't a.s.sume Anneke doesn't already have the information or soon will. Either way, we need to stop her - or anybody else - acting on that information.'