*Kelbor-Hal thinks the Emperor attacked us?' asked Zeth, spinning to face Melgator. *Do you realise how insane that sounds?'

Melgator approached her with a pleading look. *Is it insane to want to hold on to what we have built here over the millennia, Adept Zeth? Is it insanity to suspect that a man who has all but conquered the entire galaxy should allow one world among millions to remain aloof from his empire? No, the attack on our world's information systems was but the first strike in breaking the Treaty of Olympus and bringing the Mechanic.u.m to heel.'

Zeth laughed in his face. *I see now why you brought this a.s.sa.s.sin with you, Melgator a in case I should call you traitor and have you killed.'

Melgator's stance changed from one of supplication to one of aggression in an instant and hands that had once been outstretched towards her now dropped to his sides.

*You would do well to choose your next words carefully, Adept Zeth.'

*Why would that be? Will you have Remiare here kill me if you don't like them?'

*No,' said Melgator. *I would not be so foolish as to anger the Omnissiah by murdering an adept of Mars in her own forge.'

*The Omnissiah?' spat Zeth. *You speak of the Emperor breaking faith with the Mechanic.u.m and in the next breath use him as a reason not to murder me?'

*I speak of the Omnissiah as an aspect of the Machine-G.o.d yet to manifest, not the Emperor.'

*Most believe them to be one and the same.'

*But not you?'

*You already know what I believe,' said Zeth, angered beyond caution. *There is no Machine-G.o.d. Technology is science and reason, not superst.i.tion and blind faith. It's what I've always believed and it's what I still believe. Now if you're not going to kill me, get out of my forge!'

*Are you sure about this, Zeth?' asked Melgator. *Turning your back on the Fabricator General will have dire consequences.'

*Is that a threat?'

*A threat? No, merely a reiteration that we live in dangerous times and that the friendship of powerful allies would be no bad thing in the days ahead.'

*Friendship? Kelbor-Hal asks me to side with him against Terra!' barked Zeth. *What manner of friend would ask such a thing?'

Melgator slid his hands into the sleeves of his robes. *The kind that knows what is best for Mars.'

MELGATOR SLOWLY DESCENDED the steps of Zeth's forge, savouring the memory of Adept Zeth's admission of her disbelief in the Machine-G.o.d. It was all the excuse the Fabricator General needed to seize the Magma City and learn all the secrets of her forge, and Zeth had handed it to them on a plate.

He wiped a hand across his brow. Sweat beaded on his forehead in the intolerably dry heat that wrapped the city like a shroud. Melgator had travelled far and wide in his role as amba.s.sador, but this place had to rank as one of the most inhospitable on Mars.

The sooner it was plundered and laid to waste the better.

Beside him, Remiare hovered effortlessly above the steps, her masked face unreadable in the orange-lit gloom.

*Zeth knows why she escaped the sc.r.a.pcode's attack,' said Melgator. *Or at least she suspects she knows.'

*Of course,' answered Remiare. *Her apprenta was bleeding fear and information from his noospheric aura. I have stored everything I could access from his files on Zeth's work in my memory coils, and I will exload them to the Fabricator General's logic engines upon our return to Olympus Mons.'

*You can lift data from the noosphere? I didn't know that,' said Melgator, more than a little unnerved.

*Of course, the secrets of the noosphere are well known to the Sisters of Cydonia. As are the means to manipulate the mind structure beyond it.'

*What about his aegis barrier?'

*Simplicity itself to overcome.'

*Did he notice your presence?' asked Melgator.

*No, but I decided to fuse the portions of his mind that would have remembered anyway.'

*If he did not detect your intrusion, why the need to burn out his memory synapses?'

Remiare turned her deathly face towards him, and Melgator was reminded that the a.s.sa.s.sins of Cydonia did not take kindly to questions.

*Because I enjoy making living things suffer,' said Remiare. *Zeth's apprenta will no longer be able to form memories that last. His usefulness as an individual is at an end.'

Melgator swallowed, warier than ever of the monstrous creature beside him.

At last he reached the bottom of the steps, where a skimmer palanquin of bronze and polished timber panels stood ready to carry him to the landing platform upon which his transport waited.

*So how did Zeth defeat the sc.r.a.pcode attack?'

The black, soulless marbles of Remiare's eyes flickered as she retrieved and sorted the data. *I do not know and nor does Zeth, not completely, though the apprenta was of the opinion that a female named Dalia Cythera was responsible.'

*The transcriber Zeth brought from Terra? She did it?'

*So it would seem.'

*Then we need to eliminate her as soon as possible,' said Melgator. *Where is she?'

*Unknown. Her biometrics are not registered in the Martian database.'

*She was working in Zeth's forge and she's not even Cult Mechanic.u.m?'

*Apparently not.'

*Ah, Zeth, you're almost making it too easy for us,' chuckled Melgator. *Can you track this Dalia Cythera?'

*I can, but it will be easier just to take the information from the people she knows,' said Remiare. *Archived work dockets list her as being a.s.signed to a team of four individuals: Zouche Chahaya, Severine Delmer, Mellicin Oster and Caxton Torgau. Only Mellicin Oster is still within the Magma City.'

*Where?'

*Within Arsia Mons sub-hive Epsilon-Aleph-Ultima,' said Remiare. *Fiftieth floor, shutter seventeen. Off shift until 07:46 tomorrow morning.'

*Find her,' hissed Melgator. *Learn everything she knows.'

THE MAG-LEV WAS full, every seat taken, but the threatening presence of Rho-mu 31 a.s.sured them a private cabin, though it was still cramped with the five of them wedged in tight. Rho-mu 31 stood at the door to their cabin, his weapon stave held tight across his chest, leaving the four seats for Zouche, Dalia, Severine and Caxton.

Zouche and Severine sat across from her, and Caxton lay with his head on her shoulder, snoring softly. The pale, artificial light from the window gleamed from his tonsure's scalp, and Dalia smiled as she leaned back against the faux leather chair. She looked out over the Martian landscape as the rest of her companions slept. Even Rho-mu 31 was resting, the glow of his eyes dimmed as he conserved power, though his internal auspex was still vigilant.

Beyond the energy shielded gla.s.s, undulant plains stretched off into the distance, the grey emptiness of the polluted wastelands somehow beautiful to Dalia. Unfinished or abandoned mag-lev lines stretched off into invisibility in long rows of sun-bleached concrete Ts, and the sight brought a forlorn ache to Dalia's chest.

It had been years since she had seen a landscape as vast as this, and even though it was bleak and inhospitable, it was wide open and the heavens above held the landscape protectively close to them. Bands of pollutants striped the sky like sedimentary rock, and columns of light pierced the darkness as ships broke atmosphere.

A shiver travelled the length of Dalia's spine as she felt the aching loneliness that had become part of her soul since her connection with the thing beneath the Noctis Labyrinthus. The desolate emptiness outside was so endless that Dalia could easily imagine Mars to be dead, a world utterly scoured of life and abandoned for all eternity.

She was tired, but couldn't sleep. The black emptiness behind her eyes lurked in the back of her mind like a hidden predator that would strike the instant she allowed the shadows to cloak it.

*Can't sleep, eh?' asked Zouche, and Dalia looked up. She had thought him to be asleep.

*No,' agreed Dalia, keeping her voice low. *A lot on my mind.'

Zouche nodded and ran a hand over his shaven scalp. *Understandable. We're out on a limb, Dalia. I just hope this journey turns out to be worth it.'

*I know it will, Zouche,' promised Dalia.

*What do you think we're going to find out there?'

*Honestly, I'm not sure. But whatever it is, I know it's in pain. It's been trapped in the darkness for such a long time and it's suffering. We have to find it.'

*And what happens when we do?'

*What do you mean?'

*When we find this thing, this... dragon. Are you thinking about freeing it?'

*I think we have to,' said Dalia. *Nothing deserves to suffer like it's suffering.'

*I hope you're right,' said Zouche.

*You think I'm wrong to want to help?'

*Not necessarily,' said Zouche, *but what if this thing is meant to suffer? After all, we don't know for sure who put it there, so perhaps they had a very good reason to do so? We don't know what it is, so maybe whatever it is should be left in the darkness forever.'

*I don't believe that,' said Dalia. *Nothing deserves to suffer forever.'

*Some things do,' said Zouche, his voice little more than a hushed whisper.

*What, Zouche?' demanded Dalia. *Tell me who or what deserves to suffer forever?'

Zouche met her stare. She could see that it was taking all his control to maintain his composure and she wondered what door she'd opened with her question. He sat in silence for a moment, then said, *Back before people lived freely on Nusa Kambangan, it was once a prison, a h.e.l.lish place where the worst of the worst were locked up a murderers, clone-surgeons, rapists, gene-thieves and serial killers. And tyrants.'

*Tyrants?'

*Oh, yes indeed,' said Zouche, and Dalia thought she detected more than a hint of bitter pride in his voice. *Cardinal Tang himself was held there.'

*Tang? The Ethnarch?'

*The very same,' nodded Zouche. *When his last bastion fell, he was taken in chains to Nusa Kambangan, though he was only there a few days. Word got out of who he was and another prisoner cut his throat. Though if you ask me, he got off lightly.'

*Having your throat cut is getting off lightly?' asked Dalia, horrified by Zouche's coldness.

*After what Tang did? Absolutely,' said Zouche. *After all the b.l.o.o.d.y pogroms, death camps and genocides, you think his suffering should have ended swiftly? Tang deserved to rot in the deepest, darkest hole of Terra, condemned to suffer the same torments and agonies he inflicted on his victims. In the end, his suffering was much quicker than the millions he put to death during his reign. So, yes, I make no apology for thinking he got off lightly. Trust me, Dalia, there are some that deserve to be left in the darkness to pay for their crimes for all eternity.'

Tears rolled down Zouche's cheeks as he spoke, and Dalia felt a wave of sorrow as she felt a measure of his pain, even though she didn't fully understand it.

*My parents died in one of Tang's camps,' continued Zouche, wiping the tears away with the sleeve of his robe.

*For the crime of falling in love when they were genetically a.s.signed to other partners. They kept their relationship a secret, but when I was born it was obvious to everyone they'd produced an inferior offspring and they were hauled off to Tang's death camp on Roon Island.'

*Oh, Zouche, that's terrible,' said Dalia. *I'm so sorry. I didn't know.'

Zouche shrugged and stared beyond the gla.s.s of the compartment. *How could you? But it doesn't matter. Tang's dead and the Emperor guides us now. People like Tang won't ever rise again now that the Imperium's in his hands.'

*You're not inferior,' said Dalia, cutting across his train of words.

*What?' he said, looking back at her.

*I said you're not inferior,' repeated Dalia. *You might think you are because you look different to the rest of us, but you're not. You're a brilliant engineer and a loyal friend. I'm glad you're with me, Zouche. I really am.'

He smiled and nodded. *I know you are and I'm grateful for that, but I know what I am. You're a good girl, Dalia, so I'd be obliged if you didn't mention this to anyone, you understand?'

*Of course,' said Dalia. *I won't say a word. I think the rest are going to sleep all the way there, anyway.'

*Quite probably,' agreed Zouche, a discreetly extended mechadendrite linking with the port in the compartment's wall. Flickering light ghosted behind his eyelids as he linked with the mag-lev's...o...b..ard logic-engine. It was easy to forget that the Mechanic.u.m had substantially modified Zouche, for most of his augmetics were subtle, and he was reticent about openly displaying them to one not of the Cult Mechanic.u.m. *It's going to take us two days to reach the point nearest the Noctis Labyrinthus, an outlying hub of Mondus Gamma in the northern Syrian sub-fabriks.'

*Two days? Why so long?'

*This is a supply train,' explained Zouche. *We're going to pa.s.s through a lot of the borderland townships on the edge of the pallidus. According to the onboard timetable, we're about to reach Ash Border, then we'll pa.s.s through Dune Town, Crater Edge and Red Gorge before we begin the descent to the Syria Planum and Mondus Gamma.'

*Not big on originality when it comes to their settlement names, are they?' observed Dalia.

*Not really, I suppose they just name it as they see it,' said Zouche. *When you live out on the edge of civilisation, there's a virtue in simplicity.'

*I think there's a virtue in that wherever you are,' said Dalia.

THE HAB WAS warm, but then it was always warm. Hot air rising from the magma lagoon rolled up the flanks of the volcano in dry, parching waves to leach the moisture from the air like a giant dehumidifier.

Mellicin lay on her bed, with one hand thrown over her forehead. Sweat gathered in the spoons of her collarbones and she felt uncomfortably sticky and hot. The atomiser was turned on, but might as well have been switched off for all the difference it was making. She rolled onto her side, unable to sleep and unable to stop thinking of what might be happening to Dalia and the others.

She told herself it wasn't guilt, but only half-believed it.

Zeth had placed her with Dalia with the express purpose of pa.s.sing on her impressions and insights into the young transcriber's mind, and that was exactly what she had done. There had been no betrayal, no breach of trust and certainly no disloyalty.

The only betrayal would have been if she had failed in her duty to her mistress.

Why, then, did she feel so bad about telling Adept Zeth of Dalia's plans?

Mellicin knew exactly why she felt bad.

In the weeks she had worked with Dalia Cythera, Mellicin had rediscovered the joy of working on the frontiers of technology. Together they had discovered new and wondrous things, devices and theoretical science that they had gone on to prove valid. How long had it been since she, or indeed anyone in the Mechanic.u.m, had done that? True, Adept Zeth was forever pushing the boundaries of what was known and accepted, but she was a tiny cog in a larger machine and there was only so much she dared risk.