Gridlinked

'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.'

Cormac looked at Stanton estimatingly. There was something in his voice. Something he perhaps might not have been able to discern when he was gridlinked. It struck him that this was sincerity.

'We have heat traces,' came Aiden's voice over the com.

'That'll be them,' said Stanton.

Cormac hit the recall and shuriken grudgingly returned. He held up his arm and it snicked into place in the holster. 'John, get over here, now.'

Stanton broke into a jog and ducked down behind the wall with them. He looked with a kind of tired curiosity at the dracoman clinging to Cormac's arm. Cormac pointed at it.

'This fella is very anxious about my security. Understand that he'll rip you apart if you try anything.' Cormac nodded to Thorn. 'Search him.'

Thorn quickly and efficiently ran his hands through Stanton's clothing. He pulled aside a ripped trouser leg to expose the empty sheath there, then nodded at Cormac before ducking back down. Stanton crouched as well.

'What have you got now, Aiden?'

The Golem's voice sounded different now. Cormac realized that this difference stemmed from the fact that it was no longer speaking. It was broadcasting directly.

'Trace blurring now. They are dividing. Five bodies… Dracoman gone… We are going for cover now.'

'Remember, fire only when they reach the camp. Which of you has that stun gun?'

'I do,' said Cento.

'Well, put it away. We no longer need a live one.' He turned to Stanton. 'What will they have?'

'Assault weapons, a mortar and a few laser carbines. One of them has a Devcon loaded with seeker bullets.'

'Passing us now,' said Aiden.

Suddenly there was a scream, then the stutter of a pulse-rifle. Garish flashes lit the trees. One tree was blasted to flinders. The scream ceased.

'That cuts it,' came Arn's annoyed comment.

'Damn! Hold fire until you've identified your targets. I don't want one of you hitting Cento or Aiden.'

A flare went up through the trees and a man was halfway across the clearing before the light gave him away. He opened fire on the tents. Flames and smoke revealed the beam from a laser carbine. There was the blue flash of a pulse-rifle and he went face-down in the dirt. More firing, then a horrible hornetlike buzzing. Two explosions in the buildings to the right. A horrible sucking gasp over the com.

'Shit! Seeker bullets!'

'Heat flares!' shouted Cormac.

Like the finale of a fireworks display, orange flares shot in every direction amongst the buildings. The buzzing continued. Two flares went out and a nearby explosion rained flakes of rubble down on Cormac's head. The dracoman pulled him lower and he swore at it. Another stuttering pulse of light.

'They're back to the lasers,' said Arn.

'Where are you, Cento? Aiden?'

'Moving clear,' they replied simultaneously.

Then Aiden said, 'There's one to the left of the carrier operating a mortar. Can't get a clear shot from here.'

'Got him,' replied Thorn.

There was a purple flash and loud crack. A white explosion split in two a tree with a trunk a metre thick. Subliminally Cormac saw something, which might have been a man, blacken, disappear.

'There's one just beyond that burning tent - no, the dracoman's on him.'

The scream was horrible. Cormac saw two shadows grappling. One shadow folded the other to the ground. He was sure he could hear bones breaking.

'Only one left, I take it,' said Cormac acidly.

'Up and running,' said Aiden. 'Dracoman's after him. You want me to get him?'

'Leave it,' said Cormac, and let out a tight breath. He looked over the wall at the spirals of smoke. Over to his right someone was talking in a low monotone. To his left there was a sudden stuttering of pulse-gun fire. He swore and dropped back down.

'I said leave it,' he said into his comunit.

'Something in the trees,' came Goff's reply.

'Aiden, you getting anything?'

'Nothing now, but there was a trace just then. Moved too fast to be a bird,' the Golem replied.

'Surveillance drone?'

'Possible.'

'Any other traces?'

'Nothing:'

On that last word the second dracoman released Cormac's arm. He pulled away, dropped his comunit in his top pocket, and then turned on the dracoman.

'Do that again and I cut your rucking hand off,' he said.

The dracoman showed its teeth. It could have been a smile.

Cormac left it and went to find out who had died.

Two of the regulars were dead. Seeker bullets had ripped through their body armour and the pressure vessels they contained had exploded with messy results. Cormac was told one of them was the soldier Cheng. Cormac had what remained of the men scooped up and put in body-bags, then shallow-buried at the perimeter of the camp. The three recoverable bodies - the men the dracoman had killed - were brought in and laid out. Cormac recognized none of them. He turned to Stanton, just behind whom stood Thorn and Sergeant Arn.