‘The Lord High Cryptographer wishes to look up on the device with his own eyes,’ the hooded lady announced. ‘You will leave the room.’
Her peremptory demand was met at first with confusion and hesitation. Then the Interpreter clapped, and everyone outside the Lord High Cryptographer’s immediate retinue bowed and left the room. The door slid closed behind them. Only the aide and his personal guard remained.
Frey and Malvery hunkered down deeper into cover and watched as the hooded lady removed the visor from the Lord High Cryptographer’s eyes. Frey was disconcerted to see that the mask covered his face entirely, even the parts that were hidden by the visor. His mouth and eye sockets were mere depressions in the fabric; there was barely any nose at all. He was a blank, a ghostly mannequin.
The aide carefully slid her fingers under the neck of the mask, rolled it up and slipped it off.
The Lord High Cryptographer was ancient. His scrawny, wattled neck extended like a vulture’s as he leaned forward, gazing upon the Azryx device with an expression of idiot greed. His eyes were a starburst of red and yellow, irises like a spatter of blood and pus. His bald head was liver-spotted; his nose had all but rotted away. And when his puckered mouth opened in a sigh of wonder, they saw his teeth. Teeth like needles, long and thin and sharp.
Unmasked, Frey adored him, and the feeling filled him with horror. He’d never imagined it was possible for two such polarised emotions to exist together. His mind and his body were repulsed, but his heart swelled with something atrociously close to love. He wanted to believe. Had he not been so set against the Awakener’s dogma, he might have turned to the faith right then. There had to be something in it, surely? All those people couldn’t be wrong? How else to explain the sense of righteousness that emanated from this man, this great man, this
daemon
He said the word to himself and it put steel in his spine. He’d seen the face of an Imperator and he’d seen Manes, and he knew they were not so different. He’d seen the way a daemon changed its host. And in the Lord High Cryptographer’s face, he saw the same.
Once he’d been a man, but not any more. Like the Imperators, he had a daemon inside him. Perhaps he’d put it there himself, to acquire the powers it bestowed. Perhaps he believed his faith would overcome it. Or perhaps, more dreadfully, his own Imperators had forced him to it, turned on their master and made him one of them.
He didn’t know. He couldn’t guess. But he knew one thing. The Awakeners had used daemonism to create enforcers that allowed them to destroy the old religions. But somehow, over the years, it had got out of control. And the daemons were in charge now.
If the Coalition lost the civil war, Vardia wouldn’t be ruled by fanatics. It would be ruled by daemons. He gazed upon the face of the Lord High Cryptographer, and he saw the future, and it was unutterably terrible.
The creature crooned as it looked upon the Azryx device. It saw victory and lusted for it. It was a sound of such lascivious want that Frey had the urge to seize his revolver and shoot the damned thing right there.
But to shoot it would be suicide, and he couldn’t have done it anyway. The Imperators emanated fear, but this daemon was worse. It emanated love.
He saw Malvery struggling with the same feelings. His face was locked in a taut frown and he was breathing heavily. He wondered if Malvery might really pull out his shotgun and end it now, destroy the monster and the machine, whatever the consequences. It was the kind of stupid heroism patriots were prone to.
But Malvery didn’t fire, and the daemon’s face was covered once more. When they were ready, the aide opened the door to the chamber once again. The others were waiting outside. Words were exchanged outside their hearing, and the Lord High Cryptographer and his retinue left, accompanied by the Interpreter. The scientists stood in the doorway with the Sentinels after they were gone, talking amongst themselves.
‘We have to do something,’ said Malvery.
‘We have to get out of here,’ Frey replied, pointing to the ladder that led up to the observation room. At the moment the Awakeners were not watching the room, but if they came in, there was no way Frey and Malvery would make it to that ladder without getting spotted.
Malvery was reluctant, his mouth set in a grim line. It didn’t sit well with him, leaving something like that in the hands of the Awakeners.
‘Doc!’ said Frey sharply. ‘Who’s gonna tell the Coalition if we’re dead?’
Malvery gave an exasperated sigh. Frey had got through to him with that. ‘Come on,’ he said.
They slipped between the banks of machinery, keeping their eyes on the scientists and Sentinels, who were deep in discussion just outside the chamber door.
Keep talking, Frey thought. He looked up at the window of the observation room, and saw that Ashua was practically jumping up and down, beckoning them.
Stealthily he ran the last few metres to the ladder and went scampering up the rungs. Malvery came more slowly behind him, blowing out his moustaches with the effort. Frey’s muscles were tight with tension as he climbed higher. Surely someone would turn and see him? Surely he was so obvious that they couldn’t fail to notice?
But he gained the top of the ladder and no alarm was raised. Ashua all but hauled him through the hatch and into the room, then went back to urge Malvery on.
Frey picked himself up and checked on everybody. Pinn was staring out of the window with a puzzled look on his face. He looked even more vacant than usual. Jez was in a corner, crouched, her teeth bared. Pelaru squatted before her, hand raised, like a man calming a skittish dog. He looked over his shoulder at Frey.
‘The Lord High Cryptographer,’ said Pelaru, and for once there was visible emotion on his face. ‘He’s-’
‘A daemon,’ said Frey. ‘I got that.’
‘She doesn’t take it well when there are daemons about.’
‘I got that too.’
Malvery clambered through the hatch, and sat down on the floor against a workbench to catch his breath. Frey went to the window and looked down into the chamber. The Awakeners were still in the doorway; they hadn’t even come in yet.
‘What did they say?’ Ashua asked Malvery.
Malvery stared at her with a look of such despair that even Frey was affected. It took a lot to knock Malvery down, but this had rocked him.
‘Give me the earcuff,’ he said to Ashua. She dug it from her pocket and lobbed it to him.
‘We have to get gone, Cap’n,’ Malvery said. ‘We have to tell someone.’
‘We’re going, Doc,’ said Frey, clipping on the earcuff. ‘Just let me check on Trinica. .’
His voice tailed off as the sounds filled his ear. They were fuzzy and indistinct, but the words didn’t concern him. It was the tone. Shouting. Protests. Alarm. He heard an impact and a crash. Trinica cried out, and it stabbed through the confusion and pierced him.
They saw it on his face. ‘Cap’n. .’ said Malvery, a warning in his voice.
‘She’s in trouble,’ he said. He looked about wildly. ‘She’s in trouble!’
‘Cap’n, we have to go!’ Malvery insisted.
‘You go,’ said Frey. ‘Get out of here. I’m going after her.’
‘This is too important!’ said Malvery.
‘Yeah,’ said Frey. ‘It is.’ And with that he pulled open the door and headed off down the corridor.
Malvery swore. Ashua looked from the doctor to the departing captain in confusion.
‘Are we just gonna let him go on his own?’ she asked.
‘Y’know, I hope he rescues her, I really do,’ Malvery snarled as he got to his feet. ‘That way I can punt her pasty arse to the moon.’
He stormed out of the door in pursuit of his captain, and the others had no choice but to follow.
Twenty