The Marriage of the Living Dark

Too late, he thought, unclipping a grenade from his belt

“Stay there,” he whispered, indicating that they should take cover and keep low.

‘Til go look.”

Crossing over to the nearest house, Daniel went through an open gate and up a set of stairs. Then, crawling along abalcony, he peeked out through a gap in the stone balustrade. Bodies. Two, no three of them, lying in the road between the Customs House and the river. They had already been stripped and were semi-naked. Daniel moved a little, altering his view, and saw a fourth body, suited this time, two young Han crouched over it, removing the suit Nearby was a cart On it were several combat suits and a pile of weapons. Careful to make no noise, Daniel eased back a little, slipping the barrel of his gun into the gap. His finger brushed the trigger, putting the most gentle pressure on it as he squinted through the sight Two shots should do it “Lin Pei!”

One of the crouching Han looked up at the call, combing his black hair away from his eyes as someone came across.

Daniel felt a moment’s elation. The woman was wearing a fighter’s one-piece and her greying hair was tied back in a bun at the back of her head. Even so, he recognised her from the films they’d been shown. It was her! As she stepped into the cross-wires of his sights, he felt a little tremor go through him. “Look!” she said, pointing down at the body. “Boys! The bastard’s sending out boys against us now!”

Daniel tensed. One shot, through the head - that’s all it would take. And then he’d be a hero. Again.

Unexpectedly, the body groaned. Daniel watched the woman kneel, her face filled with sudden concern.

“Get Wu Ye over here at once! This one’s alive!” Daniel moved the sight marginally, so that he now had it trained directly on the boy’s head. He didn’t know the boy, but he was determined not to let the bastards take him. He was about to fire when the woman did something strange. She put her hand under the boy’s head and, lifting it gently, cradled it in the crook of her arm.

“Lin Pei, give me some of your water.”

The young Han handed her a water bottle, then crouched, watching as the woman placed the lip of the bottle to the boy’s mouth. He drank a moment, then lapsed back, against her.

As Daniel watched, she handed back the bottle, then, turning to look down at the boy again, began to gently stroke his brow.

“There,” Daniel heard her say, “you’re going to be all right now.” There was something about the way she said it, something about the way she looked at him and smiled, something in the movement of her fingers against the boy’s sweat-beaded brow, that made Daniel groan inwardly. His hand trembled now, making the cross-wires joggle.

One shot That was all it took.

He lowered the gun and sat, his back against the wall of the house. Lifting his visor, he removed his glove, then reached inside his helmet and rubbed at his eye. A slow, sighing breath escaped him.

So that was her. His enemy. The one they’d been taught to hate and despise. He closed his eyes and saw her, cradling the boy’s head and placing the water bottle to his lips, then, afterwards, stroking his forehead and smiling down at him. Only now the boy was Daniel.

He shuddered and flicked his eyes open, then crawled back to the gap and looked out She was still there. Still she cradled the boy’s head and crooned to him, even as the doctor crouched over him, cutting at his armour to get to his bloodied chest Daniel watched, grimacing as the boy’s body spasmed, one leg kicking, before he slumped and lay still, dead.

The doctor moved back slightly, shaking his head, and as he did, Daniel saw the woman’s face, saw the loss there, and marvelled at it Why, she hadn’t even known the boy. And her eyes.

He caught his breath. She was crying. The woman was crying, holding the boy tight against her breasts and crying.

“You poor boy,” she was saying, “you poor, poor boy.” Daniel jerked back, away from the gap, as if he was watching something that was forbidden. Then, trembling, afraid lest he drop his gun, he crawled over to the stairs, hurrying away.

DeVore stood on the balcony, his hands resting loosely on the stone balustrade, watching his creatures at play.

In the shadowy darkness of the ancient hall they seemed more like giant moving pillars than living beings, their great torsos bending and stretching, their great arms moving like whips as the tiny missiles flew between them, whistling in the half-dark.

It was a game they often played, and DeVore never tired of seeing it, for it demonstrated the skill and agility of the morphs as nothing else did. There were six of them in all, and they had formed a circle in the centre of the floor, roughly ten metres from each other. At the start of the game each was given two tiny balls, made of sewn black leather and filled with tiny metal beads. Once the game began, they were to throw these at their fellows - each throw to be accurate, and between knee and shoulder height -the object being to try and force an error.

A dropped ball and you were out, and to signal that you were out, you dropped to your knees and lowered your head.

A simple game. Indeed, a child’s game. But not when played by morphs. Between morphs this became a game of speed and dexterity ... and cunning. For at times the attention of all might be drawn to one, and that one would find not two but ten balls hurtling towards him.

Right now only four of the six were standing and the whizz and whistle of the balls through the darkness was like the singing of bullets in the heat of a fire-fight. There was the slap-slap-slap of caught balls, the grunts and groans of the morphs as they hurtled them back at each other. Faster it went and faster, until another cried out in dismay and knelt, bowing his head. Only three then, and the pace seemed to get faster yet, the whistle of the missiles like the circling of a bolas.

A groan. Only two were standing now.

DeVore leaned forward, excited, intent on seeing which would win as they hurled the missiles at each other like two ancient gun-fighters. Back and forth the missiles whizzed, back and forth at an ever-increasing pace. Then, suddenly, there was the slap as a ball whacked off a cheek, and that was it There was a cry of triumph, a groan of dismay. “Bravo!” DeVore cried, making them look up at him as one. “Well done, my children! But I’ve another game for you. A better game.” He went down the broad marble steps. They were all standing again, shaking themselves loose after their exertions, yet as DeVore stepped out among them - their comparative statures making him seem like a child among adults - they stopped and turned to face him, watching him attentively, their heads bowed in respect “I think if s time we paid our friend, Emily Ascher a visit.”

There was a murmur of delight at that

“In the Wilds?” one of them - Jerud - asked.

“Yes,” DeVore said. “I’ve decided to sweep the whole northern section, valley by valley until we find them. Then we go in ... and eradicate them.” “If 11 take a month at least,” another - Hiuden - said.

“Yes. But once if s done, if s done. And then ... America.” DeVore saw how they liked the sound of that Via hidden cameras he had watched them talk among themselves and knew that they longed for action - that they hated being cooped up here in the city - but there had been little he could do until now.

But now, if what he’d heard was right, things were about to change. America was in turmoil once again. Young Egan had lost the western seaboard and power was daily slipping from his hands. With the help of Coover and Horton - and others -he might destabilise things to the point where they’d have to call off their blockade of Europe’s airspace. And when they did... DeVore smiled inwardly. The moment they opened the skies to him he had won. For in that moment they would have surrendered their one and only advantage This, then, was the endgame. And in the endgame he was supreme. Why, even that great Master of wei chi, Tuan TiFo, had not been as good as him when it came to this final nip and tuck.

“Okay,” he said, looking about him at his creations with pride and a grim satisfaction. “Go and shower. And after, meet me in the War Room. There we shall make our plans.”

It was dark when they got to Abendorf and the gates of the camp were closed, but the Commandant seemed delighted to see them even so. Daniel saluted, then walked straight past the man, wanting only to find a bunk and the refuge of sleep. Behind him his patrol sneaked in, tired and bewildered, not quite sure what was going on.

On Daniel’s orders, they had hidden in the basement of a shop, waiting more than two hours before they ventured out to the sight of the ambush. The bodies were gone. At first Daniel thought that maybe scavengers had had them. But then, walking over to the grass walkway that ran beside the river, he saw freshly-turned earth - a patch six metres by two - and understood. The rebels had taken the time and trouble to bury their victims. That, too, he had found something of a shock, for they had been taught that the rebels often tortured and then ate their victims. They had been told that they were vicious and heartless and that nothing was beyond them. But he had seen her with his own eyes now. He had seen that look on her face -a look of such suffering and regret that it had reversed in an instant all he had previously believed about her.

Lies. He knew now. It was all lies.

Daniel sat there on the edge of his bunk, in full armour, staring straight ahead, while all about him the boys removed their combat suits, moving silently, loath to disturb him. He was still sitting there when the Commandant came in. “Mussida? Are you all right?”

Daniel looked up, then stood, coming to attention. All about him his boys did the same.

“Well?” the Commandant asked, trying to make sense of his mood. “Did something happen out there?”

Daniel’s eyes met the Commandant’s briefly. It was impossible to tell the truth.

“Nothing, sir. I felt... fatigued, thaf s all”

“Ah...” The Commandant seemed satisfied with that “We lost a patrol,” he went on. “At least, there’s no sign of them yet” Daniel nodded.

“Is there... anything I can get you, Daniel? For your team?” He almost smiled at that It was strange how things had changed since he’d come back from Eden. Now they deferred to him.

“They’re hungry, sir. Maybe ... something special?” The Commandant grinned broadly. “Of course! I’ll send something down from my own kitchen.” He hesitated, then, “Well, we’ll leave the report to the morning, neh? You must be tired.”

“Sir.”

When he’d gone, Daniel sat again. But if he thought that was it, he was wrong.

Closing the door, his twelve-year-old lieutenant, Robbie, turned to face him.

“Daniel?”

Daniel sighed. He could sense all the others listening, and knew what they wanted. “Yes, Robbie?”

“What did happen out there?”

He looked up and smiled sadly. “Why should anything have happened?” Robbie glanced about him, then, steeling himself, looked back at Daniel. “After the shooting. You left us to see what was going on, and when you came back... well, you were changed. It was like ...”

“Like what?”

Robbie shrugged.

He hated lying to them. Even so, it was lie or tell the truth, and he dared not tell the truth. He might as well put a gun to his own head. “The truth is,” he began, “I saw something sickening. So sickening that ... well, I’d rather not mention it It ... disturbed me.”They were staring at him now, shocked. Only a moment before they had thought him invulnerable, more a machine than a man, and now ...

“What... kind of thing?” Robbie asked.

But Daniel shook his head. “You don’t want to know.” But he knew they would speculate; would fill the gap he’d left with the most lurid imaginings. Something so hideous that it would instantly become “the truth”. But the truth was worse in a way. For the truth was that they were all living a lie. It was not The Woman who was their enemy, it was The Man. The truth was they were all living in some hideous inverted mirror of reality, wherein black and white had been reversed.

Out, he told himself, looking down at his gloved hands. I’ve got to get out. But how? And even if he did get out, how did he stop them following him? How did he get the tracing wire out of his head?

If there’s a way to put in, there’s a way to get it out.

He just had to find out how. Yes, and where it was done. And who did it And then

...

Daniel looked up. They were still all watching him, taking their mood from him -patterning themselves on him. He was their hero. Their model. What he did mattered to them.

“I’ll be okay,” he said, looking from face to face and smiling. “A good meal and we’ll all be okay, neh?”

And slowly, tentatively, their faces began to mirror his, until everyone was smiling.

Daniel nodded, letting the smile remain on his lips. Yes. All was well again.

All was ...

DeVore cried out even as he sat up, the dream so vivid that for a moment he felt the blow strike the side of his skull and split it. Emtu, sleeping beside him, sat up and, reaching across, held him as he calmed.

“What was it?” she asked, her eyes searching his.

“Karr. It was Karr. He ...

“Killed you again?”

DeVore nodded, then, shrugging off her arms, climbed from bed and went through to the bathroom, switching on the shower.

She went across and stood in the doorway, watching him. “What do you think it means?”

“It means nothing,” he answered, annoyed that she should ask “If s just a dream, that1 s all.”

“But you’ve had it several times now.”

“So?” He switched the water off and turned to face her. “Karr’s light-years from here. Literally. We’ll never see him again. So the dream means nothing.” “Dreams always mean something,” she persisted.

“Bollocks!”

As he came to the doorway he stopped, staring angrily at her, his face pressed close to hers. “Just leave it, okay? If s a dream, and only a dream. If it worries you, I’ll have the surgeon purge it, all right?” She nodded, averting her eyes as he continued to stare aggressively at her. “Good,” he said finally. “Besides, if there’s anyone who’s going to be smashing skulls, if s me. I’m good at smashing skulls. I’ve smashed a whole fucking mountain of them in my time!”

And with that he turned away.

“Yes,” she said softly, almost inaudibly, watching him walk over to the wardrobe and begin to dress. “You’re the best The very best, my love.”

Daniel jerked awake. He was wearing only his breech-cloth, but for a moment he had thought he was still in full armour. He had been sweating profusely and his limbs felt like they were encased.

Sitting up, he looked about him at the tiny dormitory. On every side the boys slept on, their faces innocent in sleep, their soft snores filling the half dark.

Something had woken him. Something ...

He went very still, realising what it had been. The answer. He had the answer suddenly.

For a moment longer he sat there, letting his pulse return to normal, his breathing slow, then he slipped back beneath the thin cloth blanket Horacek. Horacek was the key.

A single huge arc lamp illuminated the yard, throwing its bright glare over the entrance to the barn. Both of the massive doors were thrown back, and as the big cart lumbered into the yard men came out from the darkness within to help unload.

As the cart ground to a halt, Horacek jumped down, immediately organising the men, gesturing and shouting in his strange, high-pitched voice. At once they began their gruesome task, taking the bodies from the cart and stacking them inside, men to the right, women to the left, children and those too disfigured to make such distinctions, in the darkness at the far end of the barn.

It was still warm despite the hour, and as Horacek stood watching, he fanned himself, using the clipboard on which were written the latest figures. It was going well. At long last, his campaign against the southern villages was having its effect They knew now. If they sheltered even a single rebel, they would pay the price.

The probes were the key to it, of course. Since he’d been using them to spy upon the villagers, his success rate had rocketed. He had been able to go among them and, rounding them up, show them the unarguable evidence of their duplicity. But he had been careful to kill only a number of them. One in six. The rest were spared deliberately - so that word of what had happened would spread through the southlands.

Even so, there were still those who took the risk and defied him. And so he continued to go amongst them, like a vengeful god exacting justice. As the last few bodies were carried inside, Horacek wandered over to the two white-coated men who were standing by the gates, looking on. “Fresh tonight,” he said, grinning his hideous, lop-sided grin. “Good,” one of them said, turning to him. “But you ought to think about refrigeration. On nights like this ...”

“ You think about it,” Horacek answered him curtly. “I do my bit you do yours.

Besides, if s only for the camps.”

The two men looked to each other, exchanging a glance that Horacek didn’t quite understand. Were they providing meat for other markets now? If so, maybe he should up what he was charging?

“Here,” the second of them said, as if reading his mind, quickly handing him a bag of coin. “Silver. As we agreed.”

Horacek held the bag up in one hand, as if calculating its weight, then nodded.

“Good,” he said. “Tomorrow, then.”

“Tomorrow.”

He turned and walked away, past the cart and out of the yard, his six bodyguards falling in about him as he walked down through the empty streets towards the centre of the town. His men would see to the cart He had what he’d come for. It wouldn’t do, of course, to be too greedy. But no one would miss a few bodies. And if they all did well out of it, then why should anyone care if he made a profit or not, least of all The Man. After all, DeVore had more than he needed. Indeed, sometimes he thought DeVore had no interest in money at all, except in so far as it allowed him to continue his campaigns. Horacek looked about him at his men. For once he felt like sharing his good fortune.

“Okay,” he said, “you’ve worked hard for me today. If s time we had some fun.

Lef s go to Ti Yu, neh? On me.”

There were broad grins and nods of gratitude Ti Yul It was well beyond their reach. This was unlooked-for generosity!

Horacek smiled. If you treated your men well then they looked after you. And little treats like this helped But not too often. It wouldn’t do to have them expect this kind of thing all the time.

No. Just now and then. When they’d done particularly well. Grinning now, the heavy coin bag swinging back and forth in the pocket of his tunic, Horacek led them on down the empty,lamplit street, towards the glistening line of the river, and towards the great dungeon-like cellars of the Ti Yu club, where, if you had the money, you could buy anything. Anything at all.

A great cheer went up from all around the exercise yard as Daniel marched his patrol towards the gate, boys crowding the mouths of the tunnels and hanging from the windows just to get a sight of him.

His own boys were grinning, their visors up, pleased to bask in his reflected glory - part of Daniel’s team - and as they passed out under the gate, more than one of them raised an arm to acknowledge the cheers and whistles. And then they were outside again, on the road that led down through Abendorf itself and out into open country.

Daniel turned, looking back at the camp. The land dipped here, going down into the valley before it climbed again, so they would be in sight of the camp for two, maybe three, kilometres. After that, however, thick woodland obscured the view from the camp walls. There he would leave the road and head east, because he wasn’t going straight back. First he would pay Horacek a visit They walked briskly, keeping up a business-like pace while the sun was low and it was less than thirty minutes before they reached the point, deep within the cover of the woods, where he wanted to leave the road. “Okay,” he said, turning to face them. “I didn’t want to say anything before now, but we’re on a special mission.”

Daniel saw how their eyes lit at that and felt a twinge of guilt, knowing they would believe anything he said.

“I had to keep quiet about this, but now Til tell you. We’re heading east, to meet up with Marshal Horacek.”

That news, he saw, was less pleasing. None of them liked Horacek. And for good reason. They had seen his methods at close hand, when he’d visited the camp. “And don’t worry,” he added, looking from one to another. “I shall be dealing with the Marshal. You have only to get me there.”Relief, and new determination. “Okay,” he said, smiling now. “So our brief is simple. We move quickly and try not to be seen. We rendezvous with Horacek and then we go back to the camp. If all goes well, no one will know about our little detour. Right?” “Right!”

“Good. Then lef s go. We’ve eight kilometres to make.”

One of the golden-eyed, standing just back from the shadowed window of the ruined hut, saw them as they passed, moving quickly, silently along the gully that cut between the trees. Eight boys in heavy armour, the sunlight, filtering down through the branches, glinting off the hard edges of their suits. Taking a step forward, he rested his hands against the cool stone of the window ledge, and as he did, he felt a strange yet familiar sensation grip him. There was a flash of pure vision. The trees, the gully, the boys - all vanished. All, that was, but the largest of the boys, who now strode along alone on a grassy slope. And as he walked he appeared and then disappeared, time and again, his progress across the slope like a sequence of intercut films. There was laughter just out of vision and the dapping of hands. And then the boy turned and smiled.

Abruptly the vision faded and was gone.

Below him the gully was empty now. Only the faintest sound of booted feet on leaves came back to him, and in an instant that too was gone. Daniel. The boy had been called Daniel.

He frowned, then turned, looking back into the room, wondering what the vision meant.

Daniel crouched by the wall, the boys spread out in a line to either side of him, waiting for him to give the order. Two big container vehicles - half-tracks with refrigeration units - were at the end of the lane, some two hundred metres distant Beyond them men in bright green one-pieces were moving to and fro between the compound and the lane, loading the second of the vehicles.

Daniel ducked down, then unfolded the map and studied it again. According to the map, there was nothing here. Nothing, that was, except an old ruined barn. So why the vehicles? Why the armed guards?

The vehicles belonged to SimFic, the entertainments company. At least, they had the double helix logo on the side. But what in the gods’ names were SimFic doing out here at the edge of town?

Time was pressing, and he knew he really ought to be moving on if he was to see Horacek and get back. But this was intriguing. This was the kind of thing the patrols had been designed to observe.

If SimFic were working with the rebels, then maybe someone ought to know?

Or maybe not.

Daniel looked down, frowning. Before yesterday, he wouldn’t even have thought about it, but now he couldn’t think of anything else. What was he fighting for? To cleanse the world of rebels? To bring about that “New World” they had all been told so much about? But what kind of “New World” was it that had no compassion? And what kind of creatures were being bred to live in it?

Daniel looked along the line, giving the signal to hold position. At once the boys relaxed, turning to slump against the wall, taking the opportunity to rest, their weapons propped between their knees.

They were good lads, and in another world they might have made fine adults. But not in this world. Not in a world modelled upon Horacek and his like. There was the sound of huge doors slamming shut, then a call. Boots clanged against the metal sides of the vehicles as men climbed up. Then, the two engines started up, sputtering into life, then giving a deep, throaty roar. There was a strong smell of diesel, the crunch of gears being engaged, and then the first vehicle started away.

He waited until it was silent in the lane once more, then waited a little longer, listening. Only then, when he was quite sure that no one had stayed on, did he poke his head up and look.

The lane was empty, the gate to the compound closed.

“Come on,” he said, straightening up, “lef s go and have a look.”

At first he thought the barn was empty. There were dark stains on the bare earth floor, which, on closer inspection, might have been blood, but without analysis it was hard to tell. Then, in the shadows at the far end of the barn, they made their discovery.

At first glance Daniel thought that they were sacks of some kind. They were certainly stacked like sacks. But, shining a torch on them, he saw at once what they were.

One of the boys helped him carry one of the tiny bodies across and lay it down in the light Daniel raised his visor, then knelt, examining the corpse. The girl was five, maybe six years old. She had been killed by a single bullet to the side of the head. Her hands were still bound behind her back and there were bruises on her forearms. Her feet too were bound, at the ankles, and one of her fingers had been broken.

Daniel swallowed, strangely moved by the sight of her. Her long blonde hair was caked with blood and it was impossible to tell whether she had been pretty or not, so much of her face had been blown away, but he could imagine how she’d been. Could imagine her playing; could see her running, laughing in the sunlight Executed, he thought. But why?

They carried others across and examined them. They were all the same. All of them had been bound hand and foot, then killed by a single shot to the head. Detaching himself from what he was doing, Daniel began to search the bodies, looking for papers. Almost at once he found an ID card.The girl was from Lorrach, near Basel. One of the southern villages, bordering the Wilds. He quickly searched the other bodies. Not all of them had papers, but those who did were all from the southern villages.

So what was going on? And what was SimFic’s involvement?

He thought back to what he had seen in the lane and nodded to himself. There had been shortages for years now. Indeed, he was hard put to think of a time when there had not been shortages, and not just in the camps. But if this was systematic, then things had worsened considerably. Supposition, he told himself. Maybe they’re taking them off to bury them. Then why not bury them here? Why bother with the trucks, the guards and all? Why get SimFic involved in what was clearly a security matter? Another thought struck him. If they’d left these then the trucks must have been full. There must have been no room for them. Or maybe they were coming back for them. Maybe ...

He understood. This wasn’t a one-off. This was systematic.

Business as usual.

“Okay,” he said, “lef s put them back.”

“Can’t we ...?”

Daniel turned. Robbie was standing there, his gun hanging limply from his right hand as he stared at the tiny bodies.

“Can’t we what?”

The boy turned, looking to Daniel. “They’re just kids, Daniel. Can’t we ... well, bury them?”

Kids. And what were they?

“No,” he said sternly. “We stack them back where we found them, and then we forget we ever came here, right?”

There was no answer.

“Right?’ he insisted, looking about him..

“Right!” But the enthusiasm was rote, not real. This had touched them, disturbed them, the same way he himself had been touched. He was glad that was so. Was glad that they saw what he saw. But it made things difficult”Come on now! Move!”

Daniel watched, pained by the looks they gave him, steeling himself against them. Personally, he wanted to burn the place down - to take the flamer and destroy all trace of it. But then questions would be asked. And if anyone was going to ask questions, it was going to be him. “Come on!” he barked, angry now. “Lef s stack them and get out of here!” Children. The bastards were killing little children now. Tying them up and shooting them.

Yes, he thought. But then, what’s new?

Horacek yawned and stretched, then sat behind his desk, staring at Daniel, who stood there at ease, his legs apart, his hands clasped behind his back. It was a cold, predatory stare that seemed to have nothing human in it whatsoever, and, facing it again, Daniel thought it strange that he had not understood things sooner than he did. It was not simply Horacek’s physical appearance, which - after his experience in the furnace - was ghastly enough, it was the essence of the man.

Evil. This little bastard was evil incarnate.

To Horacek’s left, suspended from the ceiling of the room, hung a view screen. On it, like a scene from hell itself, two naked men were laughing as they sadistically tortured a young boy, hurting him even as they used him to pleasure themselves.

“You’ll excuse me, Daniel,” Horacek said, yawning again, “but we had a long night” He gestured towards the screen. “Ti Yu ... They let you take a tape of it away.”

Daniel gave the slightest nod, as if all was normal. “But anyway,” Horacek continued, pushing back from the desk, “why are you here, Daniel? I thought you were meant to be out on patrol?” “I am,” he answered. “But I had to see you.”

“Yes?” Horacek looked intrigued. “I can’t see why. Or if you did, why not go through normal channels?”

“Because I don’t think either of us would welcome that”Horacek’s golden eyes flickered momentarily. He was clearly trying to work out what this was - threat or offer - and it was just as clear that he couldn’t figure it “I’d like to give you something.”

“Give me something?” Horacek’s face stretched in the parody of a smile. Then he laughed. “What on earth could you give me, Daniel?” “What does he want... more than anything else?” “To end the blockade?”

“Aside from that.”

Horacek shrugged.

“The Woman,” Daniel said. “Alive.”

Horacek sat forward, suddenly alert “How?”

“I go in and get her. And bring her out”

“And then?”

“I give her to you. And you... you give her to The Man. As a present” Horacek’s mask-like face split in a smile. “Only one problem with that. How do we control her?”

“We wire her. In fact, if you’ll teach me how, I’ll do it for you before I bring her back.”

Horacek thought about it then shook his head again. ‘Too risky. If something went wrong ...”

“Have you lost your nerve, Marshal?”

Horacek stood, his whole body bristling with anger, his voice cold with threat “What do you mean?”

Daniel faced him out. “I thought you were a man who liked taking risks. I thought...”

“You thought what?”

“I thought...” Daniel steeled himself inwardly, then said it “I thought we might make a good team, you and I.”

Horacek stared at him a long while, a smile slowly forming on his black and rigid lips. “You know, I think we just might. Why, with my intelligence and your talent for killing...” He stopped, then sat again, steepling his fingers before him as he looked at Daniel. “I’ve been watching you a long time now. Studying you. And you know what? You’re the perfect weapon, Daniel Smart, great instincts, but...””But?”

“But you need ... directing.”

Daniel felt a chill go through him at the thought On the screen one of the men was kneeling over the boy now, grimacing as he tightened a loop of wire about the boy’s neck. The boy’s face was turning purple like a bruise, the veins on the side of his neck standing out like cords. And all the while the second guard continued to thrust hard into his narrow buttocks, until his brutal face contorted in an agony of pleasure My world, Daniel thought. The universe I inhabit. He tore his eyes from the image of the dying boy and met Horacek’s eyes again.

“So will you show me?”

“Show you?”

“How to wire her.”

Horacek was silent a moment, then he nodded. “Okay. But you must do something for me first, Daniel. You must swear an oath to me ... an oath of personal loyalty, to me before all others.”

Daniel met his eyes unflinchingly, conscious of the immense darkness behind their golden surfaces. “And The Man?”

Horacek came round the desk and stood before him, looking up into Daniel’s face.

“You want to work with me, Daniel?”

“Yes.”

“Then forget The Man. Now, will you swear?”

Daniel stared back at him long enough to read the ambition, the burning envy of DeVore that dwelt in the dark depths of those golden eyes, then, lowering his head, he knelt and, taking Horacek’s outstretched hand, kissed the iron ring. “I swear.”

A cold wind blew across the launching field as DeVore stepped down from the tower and greeted his creatures.

Sixty of his morphs stood there, in lines of ten, their huge space helmets tucked beneath their arms, their long, massive bodies made to seem even more gigantic by the rust-coloured spacesuits they wore.Beyond them, on the far side of the field, a dozen spacecraft waited, their hatches open, like huge metallic spikes pointed at the late evening sky.

Stepping up onto the platform, DeVore felt an immense pride. They had prepared for this for months, yet if they felt anything now that the time had come, they did not show it In that they were the perfect servants, obedient to a fault. Even so, like his boys, they were only a stepping stone to something better.

Beyond them, in the future, lay other, finer creatures. And beyond those ... DeVore shivered, feeling the black wind at the back of him, like a gale blowing from the heart of nothingness.

His vision had no bounds. Exaggerated evolution, that was his aim. A perpetual pushing back of the frontier. And in that process these creatures that he’d made - fine as they were -were but a start, an inkling of what was to be. Oh Brave New World that has such creatures in it... He smiled at the thought Shepherd had sent him the book only two nights back, and he had read it at a sitting, intrigued that someone - a mere human, who had lived before the modern age - could have seen how it would be. Even so, his own dreams went beyond that Brave New World, to a bright clean future in which his new creatures - his Neumann - had spread out to fill the entire galaxy. And galaxies beyond.

He recalled what Shepherd had said and felt a tiny ripple of satisfaction.

That’s what Hike about you, Howard. Your dreams are so modest. But greatness had no call for modesty, as Shepherd himself well knew. And his own greatness lay in just this - that he could see beyond the day, to other, brighter days, far in the future. No. He was not limited as these time-bound creatures were limited, for he not merely dreamed, he could fulfil his dreams. Worlds without end, Amen ...

He looked out over the lines of earnest, expectant faces -long, inhuman faces that were almost abstract in their form - and nodded. “The time has come,” he said, raising his voice above the noise of the wind. ‘Tonight we shall smash the American satellites and end their blockade of City Europe. Tonight...” he paused, “tonight we start a whole new age.” He saw how they looked back at him, self-contained and proud, the very picture of determination. They knew that this was effectively a suicide mission; even so, they would do their best for him. And if they perished in the process, then they would do so without question.

So they were. So he had made them.

As you made the others?

Again they were Shepherd’s words. And again the bastard was right Briefly DeVore thought of Tybor and the other rebel morphs. Those too he had made. But something had gone wrong.

Well, maybe he would have Shepherd look at it sometime and see if he could put his finger on the problem. For he had looked long and hard and still he had no proper explanation. Not one that satisfied. Their genetic programming had been no different from these sixty creatures, nor were there special factors in their nurturing that could have made them different - and yet different they were. Twisted, somehow.

He pushed the thought aside, returning to the task in hand. “You know what you have to do,” he said, his voice hard, his eyes gleaming now, as if he saw it all in his mind’s eye. “Yes, and you know how difficult a task it is. But there’s one thing I’ve kept from you until now. One final, tiny yet all-important piece in the puzzle. I couldn’t tell you before now because I couldn’t afford to jeopardise our operation but the fact is, we’ve breached American security.”

DeVore smiled, noting their surprise. ‘That’s right. We’ve agents inside the American command centre, and those agents have promised us an envelope of forty-five seconds in which the central control system will be down. For that brief time the crews of all eighteen satellites will be cut off from their command centre and operating on manual control only. They’ll be confused and part of their attention will beon re-establishing a link to central command, so that’s when we hit them. As many as we can. The more we hit, the better our chances in the seconds after the system comes back on line. I’ve had our strategists look at it, and they reckon that if we can hit ten of the eighteen in those first forty-five seconds then we’ve won.” DeVore paused, placing his hands on his hips. “Thafs the theory. But I know you can do better than ten. In fact, if I’m right about you - if you’re as good as I think you are - then there won’t be a single satellite functioning when their system comes back up.”