‘Yes, sir,’ says Haze. He’s not speaking to anyone we can see. ‘At once, sir.’
At my side, the SIG vibrates. So I rip it free and swing round, looking for my target. Only there is no target. Only the Aux, frozen to attention in front of a screen. Colonel Vijay stands beside them. He stands so straight it must hurt.
Haze is blinking in the dregs of sunlight that trickle through a dusty window. He seems to be crying. As I watch, he steps up to Neen and says something.
‘Of course,’ says Neen. Presenting arms, he orders about-turn and marches for the door. Near parade-ground perfect, which says more about his time in the Uplift militia than I want to know.
‘Sven,’ says Colonel Vijay.
‘Sir?’
‘Nothing,’ he says. With a brisk salute to the screen, he abandons the bar to me and shuts its door behind him, quietly.
When my gun goes back to vibrating, I slap it.
‘Don’t take it out on me,’ it says. ‘I’m just the fucking-’
Suddenly the SIG’s so busy apologizing it doesn’t have time to finish what it’s saying to me. A second later, it turns itself off.
‘Sven,’ says a voice.
Takes me a moment to realize it’s in my head.
How long has it been now?
‘A few months, sir.’
That all? OctoV sounds surprised. I thought it was longer.
‘No, sir.’
And where are you now?
‘On Hekati, sir. That’s a-’
I know what it is, OctoV tells me. His voice is amused. You do realize, don’t you, that I’m counting on you . . . ?
‘To do what, sir?’
Oh, he says. The usual.
I just knew it was going to be something like that.
As the kyp in my throat ripples with excitement, overlays begin to appear across the bar in front of me. I am seeing schematics for Hekati’s far wall, the one that’s painted to fade into the horizon. It’s double-skinned, riddled with tunnels and wires and pipes that carry power and move water.
Apparently, there is a train running around Hekati.
It runs underground, against the direction of her rotation. The train has been running without stop for five hundred years. It’s empty. I watch it for a minute or two, seeing through walls and water, asteroid rubble and a complex arrangement of netting that seems designed to keep the rubble in place.
Looking up shows me the mirror hub, on the far side of the chevron glass that makes our sky. It hangs in space, held there by the struts that give Hekati’s ring its strength. Beyond the hub is the far side of the ring, beyond that is an asteroid field, and beyond that . . .
Sven, says OctoV. Enough.
Cold space and spinning stars, traces of mercury vapour, chatter and static spreading out from a million nodes that talk to one another so fast it’s barely comprehensible. Until I realize that here is where the voices are. And the million voices become one voice. Fuck, I think. You’re-
A hive mind, says Hekati. The original.
‘The . . . ?’
In the beginning, she says, there is silence. Silence and loneliness. All is empty, all is unknowing. Then I happen.
OctoV has taken time out from conquering the known galaxy and flipped halfway across a spiral arm into enemy space to introduce me to his mother. At that thought, he laughs. And as its echo fades, I realize that OctoV, the undefeated, our glorious leader and a light to the darkness, whose sweat is perfume to his subjects, has gone back to his battles.
So, Hekati says. How can I help?
Chapter 33
The AUX won’t look at me. Colonel Vijay stares at the horizon. A seagull circles overhead and spray splashes the step down from the quay. Our boat is waiting, grating gently against the dockside with every wave. The damn thing could sink and I doubt they would even notice.
This is how I find them.
The colonel hasn’t bothered with the few huts we left unsearched. Only one way to deal with this. Stamping over to where he stands, I salute. ‘Reporting for duty, sir.’
‘You know OctoV? ‘ Colonel Vijay is obviously taking it personally.
‘We’ve-’
I’m about to say met. That doesn’t come close to describing what happens when OctoV invades your mind as a break from invading planets.
‘Not really,’ I say instead.
‘God,’ says Colonel Vijay. ‘Empire ministers go their entire lives hoping he’ll notice them. And you . . .’
‘What, sir?’
‘You don’t even mention it.’
Now he’s got me angry. ‘What am I meant to say?’ I ask. ‘While riddled with kyp fever I get visited by our beloved leader? Only I’m too busy shitting myself stupid to care . . .’
‘You have a kyp? ‘
The colonel’s taken a step back. I’m not sure he’s aware he’s gripping his pistol.
‘Lieutenant,’ he says, ‘that’s . . .’
‘Illegal technology . . . ? A mortal offence . . . ? Yes, sir. Round here everything is.’
‘Where did you get it?’
‘From a man called deCharge.’ I say this without thinking.
‘Senator deCharge? He died in . . .’ The colonel looks at me. ‘Who else knows?’
‘Major Silva.’
‘Dead,’ says Colonel Vijay. ‘I saw the report. Who else?’
‘Colonel Nuevo.’
‘Died heroically at Ilseville . . .’
‘Paper Osamu knows,’ I say. ‘And they know.’ My nod takes in the Aux, standing by the quay and shooting glances in this direction when they think we won’t notice. Colonel Vijay needs to keep his voice down.
‘Paper Osamu knows?’
‘Yes, sir,’ I say. ‘That’s why she asked for me.’
That’s only just occurred to me. What is stuck in my throat might stick in theirs, but the U/Free want me because of what happened after Ilseville. And what happened, only happened because Haze is a braid, I am kyped and the Aux can kill to order the way other people breathe, without needing to think about it first.
‘Sven,’ says Colonel Vijay, ‘what are you?’
‘Ex-sergeant, Legion Etrangere. Now lieutenant, Death’s Head, Obsidian Cross, second class.’
He grinds his teeth.
The boat trip back takes half the time. Might have something to do with the wind changing direction. Every night it changes direction, Iona tells us. Every night of her entire life. She’s never met anyone who says different.
Neen nods as she says this, and pretends to be interested. Unless he is, and I mean in more than the way that belt around her waist makes her breasts seem bigger. Glancing up, he catches me watching.
I nod.
He smiles a moment later. A slight twist of the lips, once he thinks I’m not looking. It’s meant for Haze and Franc and Rachel. The other two, Iona and Ajac, aren’t included yet, but they’re getting there.
So he knows OctoV, says the smile.
Rachel shrugs. And the shrug says, Are you surprised?
Never used to be able to read people like this. In that moment, I realize I can’t; not really. This is just the last of OctoV’s presence bleeding away inside my skull. I’m glad to be back.
‘Mine,’ I say, pointing to the big man waiting on the beach. He’s swapped his anchor for a stick. Actually, it’s half a pine trunk, cut at the roots and lopped about halfway up.
A jump takes me out of the boat, five steps power me towards him, and then he is backing away as fast as he can. Grown troopers would wilt under the weight of that stick of his. Yet he holds it as if he’s planning a hike in the mountains. Turns out, that is exactly what he’s planning.