I’ll do what I can, which at my age is very limited.
Don’t underestimate yourself.
Thank you. You haven’t been edited down that much, you know.
Some parts of me can’t be edited, not if I want to keep being me. Bearing that in mind, I have one last favour to ask of you.
Go on.
I’d like you to explain this to Syrinx for me. I know my little Sly-minx, she’ll go nova when she hears I volunteered for
this.
I’ll tell her. I don’t know if I can explain, but. ..
The serjeant bowed as best the medical packages would allow.
Thank you, Athene.
I can’t give you my blessing. But do please take care.
• • •
There was no lavish farewell party this time. Monterey had a more serious, less triumphant air these days. But Al chose the
Hilton’s ballroom anyway to watch the fleet coming together, and to hell with any bad feelings and resentment it stirred up
in his head. He stood in front of the window, gazing out at the starships clustered around Monterey. There were over a hundred
and fifty of them, dwindling away until the more distant ones were nothing more than big stars. Ion thrusters fired microsecond
jets of gauzy blue neon to keep their attitude locked. MSVs and personnel commuters swam among them, delivering new crew and
combat wasps.The stealthed mines which the voidhawks from Yosemite had scattered were no more, returning space around New
California to a more peaceful state. Even the voidhawks sent to observe the Organization were finding it increasingly difficult
to maintain their inspection high above New California’s poles.
As if to emphasise the change in local strategic fortunes, a hellhawk hurtled past the Hilton tower, twisting about in complex
curves to dodge the stationary Adamist starships. It was one of the harpies, a red-eyed beast with a hundred-and-eighty-metre
wingspan and a vicious-looking beak.
Al pressed himself up against the window to watch as it skirred around the asteroid. “Go you beaut,” he yelled after it. “Go
get ’em. Go!”
A small puff of pink dust erupted from nowhere as a stealthed spyglobe was masered. The hellhawk performed a victory roll,
wingtip feathers standing proud to twist the solar wind.
“Wow!” Al pulled back from the window, smiling magnanimously. “Ain’t that something else?”
“Glad I can live up to my part of the bargain,” Kiera said with cool objectivity.
“Lady, after this, you got as many fresh bodies as you want for Valisk. Al Capone knows how to reward his friends. And believe
me, this is what I call friendly.”
A serene smile ghosted her beautiful young face. “Thank you, Al.”
The cluster of Organization lieutenants at the rear of the ballroom kept their expressions stoic, while their minds palpitated
with jealousy. Al liked that; introduce a new favourite in court, and see how the old-timers bid to prove themselves. He sneaked
a look at Kiera’s profile; she was wearing a loose-fitting purple blouse and second-skin-tightness trousers, hair tied back
with fussy decorum. Her face was beguiling, with its prim features kept firmly under control. But smouldering deep behind
it was the old familiar illness of powerlust. She had more class than most, but she wasn’t so different.“How we doing, Luigi?”
Al bellowed.
“Pretty good, Al. The hellhawk crews say they should have cleared away every mine and spyglobe in another thirty-two hours.
We’re pushing those asshole voidhawks back further and further, which means they can’t launch any more crap at us. They don’t
know what we’re doing anymore, and they can’t hurt us so bad. It makes one hell of a difference. The fleet’s shaping up great
now. The guys, they’re getting their morale back, you know.”
“Glad to hear it.” Which was an understatement. It had been looking bad for a while, what with the voidhawks launching their
unseen weapons and the lieutenants down on the planet abusing their authority to carve themselves out some territory. Funny
how all problems locked together. Now the hellhawks had arrived the situation in space was improving by the hour. The crews
were no longer living in constant fear of a strike by a stealthed mine, which improved their efficiency and confidence by
orders of magnitude. People on the ground sensed the fresh tide above them and wanted to play ball again. The number of beefs
was dropping; and the guys Leroy had working the Treasury electric adding machines said fraud was levelling out—not falling
yet, but shit you couldn’t expect miracles.
“How do you keep the hellhawks in line?” Al asked.
“I can guarantee them human bodies when their work’s finished,” Kiera said. “Bodies which they can go straight into without
having to return to the beyond first. They’re very special bodies, and you don’t have any.”
“Hey.” Al spread his arms wide, puffing out a huge cloud of cigar smoke. “I wasn’t trying to muscle in on you, sister. No
way. You got a neat operation. I respect that.”
“Good.”
“We need to talk terms about another squadron. I mean, between you and me, I’m in deep shit over Arnstadt—pardon my French.
The goddamn voidhawks there are wasting a couple of my ships each day. Something’s gotta be done.”
Kiera gave a noncommittal moue. “And what about this fleet? Won’t you need a squadron to protect it from voidhawks at Toi-Hoi?”
Al didn’t need to consult Luigi over that one, he could sense the hunger in the fleet commander’s mind. “Now you come to mention
it, it might not be a bad idea.”
“I’ll see to it,” Kiera said. “There should be another group of hellhawks returning to Valisk today. If I dispatch a messenger
now, they should be back here within twenty-four hours.”
“Sounds pretty damn good to me, lady.”
Kiera raised her walkie-talkie, and pulled a long length of chrome aerial out of it. “Magahi, would you return to Monterey’s
docking ledge, please.”
“Roger,” a crackling voice said from the walkie-talkie. “Give me twenty minutes.”
Al was aware of an uncomfortable amount of satisfaction in Kiera’s mind. She was pretty sure she’d just won something. “Couldn’t
you just tell Magahi to go straight back to the habitat?” he inquired lightly.
Kiera’s smile widened gracefully. It was the same welcoming promise which had ended the Deadnight recording. “I don’t think
so. There’s a big security factor if we radio the order; after all there are still some spyglobes out there. I don’t want
the Edenists to know Magahi is flying escort on a frigate convoy.”
“Escort? What frigates?”
“The frigates carrying the first batch of my antimatter combat wasps to Valisk. That was your part of the bargain, Al, wasn’t
it?”
Damn the bitch! Al’s cigar had gone out. Emmet said their stocks of antimatter were nearly exhausted, and the fleet needed
every gram to insure success at Toi-Hoi. He looked at Leroy, then Luigi. Neither of them could offer him a way out. “Sure
thing, Kiera. We’ll get it organized.”
“Thank you, Al.”
Tough little ironass. Al couldn’t decide if he respected that or not. He didn’t need any more complications right now. But
he was awful glad that she was lining up on his side.
He took another sidelong look at her figure. Who knows? We could get to be real close allies. Except Jez would kill me for
real. . .
The ballroom’s huge double doors swung open to admit Patricia and someone Al had never seen before. A possessed man, who managed
to cringe away from Patricia at the same time as he scampered along beside her. Judging by the perilously fragile state of
his thoughts he had only just come into his new body.
He saw Al, and made an effort to compose himself. Then his eyes darted to the huge window. His discipline crumpled. “Holy
cow,” he whispered. “It is true. You are going to invade Toi-Hoi.”
“Who the fuck is this goofball?” Al shouted at Patricia.
“His name’s Perez,” she said calmly. “And you need to listen to him.”
If it had been anyone else who spoke to him like that, they would’ve been kiboshed. But Patricia was one he really trusted.
“You’re shitting me, right?”
“Think what he just said, Al.”
Al did. “How did you know about Toi-Hoi?” he asked.
“Khanna! I got it from Khanna. She told me to tell you. She said one of us must get through. Then she killed me. She killed
all of us. No, not killed, executed, that’s what she did, executed us. Smash smash smash with the white fire. Straight through
my brain. That bitch! I’d only been back for five minutes. Five goddamn minutes!”
“Who told you, fella? Who’s this she you got the beef with?”
“Jacqueline Couteur. Back in Trafalgar. The Confederation Navy got her banged up in the demon trap. I hope she rots there.
Bitch.”
Patricia smiled a superior I-told-you-so, which Al acknowledged frugally. He put his arm around Perez’s shaking shoulders,
and proffered the man a Havana. “Okay, Perez. You got my word, the word of Al Capone, which is the toughest currency of all,
that nobody here is gonna send you back into the beyond again. Now, you wanna start at the beginning for me?”
Earth.
A planet whose ecology was ruined beyond repair: the price it paid for elevating itself to be the Confederation’s supreme
industrial and economic superpower. Overpopulated, ancient, decadent, and utterly formidable. This was the undeniable imperial
heart of the human dominion.
It was also home.
Quinn Dexter admired the images building up on the bridge’s holoscreens. This time he could savour them with unhurried joy.
Their official Nyvan flight authority code had been accepted by Govcentral Strategic Defence Command. As far as anyone was
concerned, they were a harmless ship sent by a tiny government to buy defence components.
“Traffic control has given us a vector,” Dwyer said. “We have permission to dock at the Supra-Brazil tower station.”
“That’s good. Can you fly it?”
“I think so. It’s tough, we have to go around the Halo, and they’ve given us a narrow flight path, but I can handle that.”
Quinn nodded his permission without saying anything. Dwyer had been a perfect pain in the arse for the whole voyage, making
out how difficult everything was before the flight computer performed whatever was required with faultless efficiency. An
extraordinarily transparent attempt to show how indispensable he was. But then Quinn knew the effect he had on people, it
was part of the fun.
Dwyer was immediately busy talking to the flight computer. Icons flurried over the console displays. Eight minutes later they
were under power, accelerating at a third of a gee to curve southwards around the O’Neill Halo.“Are we going down to the planet
first?” Dwyer asked. He was growing progressively twitchier in contrast to Quinn’s deadly calm. “I didn’t know if you wanted
to take over an asteroid.”
“Take over?” Quinn asked faintly.
“Yeah. You know, bring them the gospel of God’s Brother. Like we did for Jesup and the other three.”
“No, I don’t think so. Earth isn’t so arse backwards as Nyvan, it would never be that simple to convene the Night here. It
must be corrupted from within. The sects will help me do that. Once I show them what I’ve become they’ll welcome me back.
And of course, my friend Banneth is down there. God’s Brother understands.”
“Sure, Quinn, that’s good. Whatever you say.” The communications console bleeped for attention, which Dwyer happily gave it.
Script flowed down one of the screens, which only amplified his distress as he read it. “Hell, Quinn, have you seen this?”
“God’s Brother gave me a great many gifts, but being psychic isn’t one of them.”
“It’s the clearance procedures we have to comply with after we dock. Govcentral security wants to ensure no possessed are
on board.”
“Fuck that.”
“Quinn!”
“I do hope, I really fucking do hope that you’re not questioning me, Dwyer.”
“Shit, no way, Quinn. You’re the man, you know that.” His voice was verging on hysteria.
“Glad to hear it.”
The Brazilian orbital tower sprouted from the very heart of the South American continent, extending fifty-five thousand kilometres
out into space. When it was in Earth’s penumbra, as it was when the
Mount’s Delta
approached, it was invisible to every visual sensor. However, in other electromagnetic wavelengths, and particularly the
magnetic spectrum, it
gleamed
. A slim golden strand of impossible length, with minute scarlet particles skimming along it at tremendous speed.
There were two asteroids attached to the tower. Supra-Brazil, the anchor, was in geostationary orbit thirty-six thousand kilometres
above the ground, where it had been mined to extract the carbon and silicon used in the tower’s construction. The second asteroid
sat right at the tip, acting as a mass counterbalance to ensure the anchor remained stable, and damp down any dangerous harmonic
oscillations in the tower which built up from running the lift capsules.
Because Supra-Brazil was the only section of the tower that was actually in orbit, it was the one place where ships could
dock. Unlike every settled asteroid it didn’t rotate, nor were there any internal biosphere caverns. The three-hundred-metre-diameter
tower ran cleanly through the rock’s centre; its principal structure perfectly black and perfectly circular. Positioned around
the lower segment that stretched down to Earth were twenty-five magnetic rails along which the lift capsules rode, delivering
tens of thousands of passengers and up to a hundred thousand tonnes of cargo a day. The other segment, reaching up to the
counterbalance, supported a single rail, which was used barely once a month to ferry inspection and maintenance mechanoids
to the individual section platforms.
The surface of the asteroid was covered with docking bays and all the usual spaceport support equipment. After three hundred
and eighty-six years of continual operation, and the tower’s steady capacity expansion, there wasn’t a square metre of rock
left visible.