Gridlinked

25

Ian Cormac: Yet another mythical creation of hero-starved humanity. Earth Central Security does have its monitors, its Sparkind and troops, and, yes, it does have its secret agents. But let us be honest about these people: they are, on the whole, grey and characterless. Again, this is all about what we want to believe. We want this superagent who so easily sorts out all the bad guys for us. Cormac is to ECS what a certain agent with the number 007 was to MIS. At best he is a fictional creation, at his worst he is a violent and disruptive role model.

From Quince Guide, compiled by humans

The light was like clotted blood and seemed to tangle the shadows in the chequer trees beyond the encampment in swirls and eddies, and strange globular buds glistened in the branches like molluscs. The encampment itself was lit by lights inside some of the tents. It had been Arn's idea to inflate a couple of survival suits with crash foam and sit them inside the tents. With a radio playing some monotonous atonal singing, the whole was quite convincing. Crouched behind a crum- bling wall, Cormac surveyed the trees through the night-setting on his visor. Amongst the native chequer trees, so named because of the pattern of their bark, were blue oaks: a variety much used in the later stages of terraforming projects, and called so because their acorns were blue. They grew very slowly, but were hardy enough to withstand extremes of weather not found on Earth. Beside Cormac crouched Thorn and the two dracomen. Aiden and Cento were somewhere in the trees, using thermal scanners to pick up on whoever might come. They had been gone for two hours.

'Why's the moonlight so red?' asked Thorn.

Cormac had wondered that, too. The sunlight was turned a weak green by the atmosphere, yet under reflected light from the moon it took on the colour of old blood. He had asked Cento for an explanation.

He informed Thorn, 'The green sunlight's caused by the atmosphere - aerial algae apparently. The moon has huge mixed deposits of cinnabar and fluorspar on its surface. That's where the red light comes from.'

'How come?'

'I asked the same question. Cinnabar is a red pigment; it's also mercuric sulphide. Mining it is the chief economic resource here. There's a runcible up there for transporting tankers of mercury all over the sector. The fluorspar is fluorescent. The combination of the two produces that red light, even when the daytime sky is green.'

'Oh,' said Thorn, and fell silent.

Cormac gave him an assessing look. Only as they had been speaking had he noticed that Thorn kept one of the proton guns resting against the wall next to him.

'Little excessive?' he said, nodding at the weapon.

Thorn picked it up and held it almost lovingly. In its main chamber the light was subdued: it writhed and shifted, a luminescent mist.

'Well,' said Thorn, 'I do have to test this chap.'

Cormac reserved comment on that. There was little chance that any of the weapons provided for this operation would not work. They continued watching.

'You are to be attacked by other humans?'

Cormac turned in surprise to look straight into the teeth of a grinning dracoman. It was the first question from one of them since they had been picked up by Hubris.

'Yes,' said Cormac, 'killers out for vengeance on me.'

'This would endanger mission.'

'Yes, it—'

The dracoman slid off into the night. It was gone before Cormac could say another word.

'Speedy chap,' observed Thorn.

The other dracoman moved up beside Cormac and took hold of his biceps. Its hand was an iron manacle closing.

'You will not be harmed,' said the dracoman.

Cormac tried to free his arm. 'Let me go, damn it!'

The dracoman lost interest in him and turned its head away. It did not release its hold.

'You're supposed to obey—'

'Someone coming,' came Aiden's voice over com. 'One figure approaching. Just walking in… Who is that coming from your direction? I thought—' There was a pause of a couple of seconds. 'I see. Did you send this dracoman out?'

'I didn't send it. What's it doing?'

'It's lined up like a pointer to the trace.'

'Just one figure approaching you say? You're not missing anything?'

'No, this scanner is the best, and Cento and I are also watching full-spectrum. There is no individual cha-meleonware that sophisticated.'

'Could it be the android?'

'No, not big enough and wrong heat emission for a metal-skin. It's a man, heavily built. He could be nothing to do with Pelter.'

'Aiden, I want whoever that is alive. If the dracoman goes for him, flatten it. Otherwise just keep watching and let him walk in.'

'Will do,' the Golem replied.

Cormac looked with irritation at the dracoman still clamped on to his arm, then watched the trees.

Aiden spoke over the com again. 'Our dracoman just got a bit frisky,' he said. In the background there was a sound as of someone shoving a knife into a tyre.

'What happened?' Cormac asked.

'I'm sitting on him,' said Aiden.

Cormac looked at the dracoman holding him. He could not help but appreciate the humour of the situation.

'Where's the man now?' he asked.

'Should be coming into sight.'

The figure that walked from the forest, with his shadow cast before him by the bloody moonlight, was immediately familiar to Cormac. He turned his attention to his shuriken holster. Its small screen was lit just enough in the darkness for him to make his selection of program, straining against the grip of the dracoman at every moment. When he had it set, he flipped the weapon into his hand and tossed it into the air. The shuriken shot away with a whickering sound. It stopped in midair only a metre or so in front of the man. The man halted, then he looked around.

'This will fool them, Ian Cormac,' he said, 'but it won't fool Pelter.'

Cormac pulled against the restraining hand and the dracoman reluctantly let him stand. It stood with him, baring its teeth at the shadowed figure.

'It won't fool who, John?' he asked.

Stanton made a careful gesture towards the shuriken. 'Can I come on in?'

'Just walk. It'll stay the same distance ahead of you. Don't make any sudden moves, and don't touch any weapons you might have,' Cormac told him.

Stanton walked on into the encampment. As the light from the tents revealed him, Cormac saw a thinner-faced individual than the one he had known. Stanton was also decidedly battered.

'I don't have any weapons - only information,' he said.

'Why are you here, John?'

'To see Pelter dead, that's all.'

'That's far enough. Now explain yourself,' said Cormac.

Stanton glanced behind him. 'I don't have much time to explain. You're going to be hit very soon now.'

'By Pelter, or by these others you refer to?'

'The others. Pelter won't come in here without some idea of what you've got. He hired people here, armed them, and promised them a shitload of cash. He's going to use them as a probe, an expendable probe. You know what he's like.'

'Why should I believe you?'

'Because I walked in here unarmed. Because I just don't care any more. You can take me, but just get Pelter.'