"After Pyre?"
"Oh, long before that. But Pyre was what sent him over the edge. You, Saint Scarlet, were the final mutator. You came to Pyre, and turned my brother into a monster."
"Lahmi-"
"Wait." He span away. The holoscreen of the entertainment system lit up. For a second illuminated pages scrolled across it, but then the channel changed in a burst of static. Lahmi must have been operating it with his joystick.
When the holo cleared, it showed a view outside Tisiphone. Another cable-car was gliding towards the ship. "It seems," Lahmi said, "that you'll be able to ask him yourself."
Red stepped up beside him, put a hand on his skeletal shoulder. "Can you show us inside the car?"
The joystick twitched, and the holoscreen blurred. The interior of a cable-car resolved itself a second later.
Xandos Dathan was operating the controls. Behind him stood Parmenas, the ground-forces commander, and a squad of Umbrae Nova guards.
"Parmenas. That brute." Lahmi sighed. "So the time has come. Xandos has the location of the Conclave, he has his avenging Fury. He no longer needs his brother."
"What's he going to do?"
"What do you think?" The chair swung around the room, away from Red, came to rest facing the airlock. "He's seen your ship, out there on the shell. He might be mad, but he's not a fool. My usefulness has ended, and yours."
"Sneck." This was going to get messy. In an open fight Red would have given herself an even chance against Xandos and a few guards, but the control structure was enclosed, awkward. Once the frag-shells started flying, things could turn very bad indeed.
And he had brought Parmenas along. "Jude? Can we get to the other car before he arrives?"
"Not a chance." Harrow was checking the power level on his magnum. Suddenly he stopped and looked up. "Charge," he said.
"Charge? Well, I'll give it a go, but I was thinking of finding some cover and blasting away from that."
"No, not charge them. Electrical charge." He bolted away.
Red scrambled after him. "Jude? What the sneck?"
"This shuttle still has power! We've already seen the drain..." He ducked past the airlock, into the front of the craft, and dropped into the control throne, leaning down to blow dust from the control boards.
"You're not seriously thinking of flying this thing!"
He didn't answer, just began stabbing at the controls. Icons began to light up under his fingers.
"Jude, I really think this is a bad idea."
"Holy one, if this doesn't work I promise I'll let you think of plan B."
She waved the magnum at him. "I'm holding plan B!"
There was a grinding sound, and armoured panels began sliding up around the boards. Behind them were viewports, looking out onto the back of the control structure. Red could see the tunnel snaking away from them, the raised part at the front where Tisiphone's eight-sided bridge was built.
She could see the cable-car docking, too.
Control collectives were unfolding from the board. Harrow grabbed them and thumbed the drive toggle. Loud banging noises began to issue from the rear of the craft, and there was a rising whine of generators. "What the sneck's that?"
"Linkages," called Lahmi from his chamber. "Xandos kept this craft operational, in case he needed to escape Tisiphone."
The tunnel was vibrating. "Now would be a good time, Jude."
He eased the collectives back. The shuttle shook violently, twisted, almost throwing Red off her feet. The tunnel began to shake even more as whoever was in it started running back towards the control structure.
There was a scream of wrenching metal.
Abruptly, the shuttle jerked backwards. The tunnel ripped free, spilling air. Red was hoping Dathan might fall out of it, but the Umbrae Nova leader must have made it back to the structure in time. "Okay, now what?"
"Suggestions would be appreciated." Harrow powered the shuttle up, off the surface of the planet-killer. Red saw it drop away from her, the entire length of the forward section suddenly in view. It was an awesome thing, terrifying. And for this to be the result of one man's madness... "Not sure... Any guns on this thing?"
"I'm afraid not."
"The cables." That was Lahmi. Red darted back to the circular chamber. The mutant was in front of his holoscreen, watching the action.
"Which cables?"
"The ones the cable-cars run on." Lahmi's chair whirled around to her. "Sever them! Show Xandos what it feels like to be entombed!"
Red grinned. "Jude," she shouted, over her shoulder. "You heard the man."
The shuttle yawed, slewed about, and seconds later there was a series of brutal impacts. Red gabbed Lahmi's chair to avoid being hurled over again. She could have sworn she heard twanging noises.
Xandos Dathan was going to have to find another way off his planet-killer.
Her comm-linker buzzed. Red snapped it free and saw a familiar cipher scrolling across its screen. "Godolkin?"
"Blasphemy, I have much to tell you."
"Things have been kinda full of surprises here too. Where are you?"
"Heading towards Emissary, as you ordered."
"Change of plan." She winked at Lahmi. "First, congratulations on your timing, and second, we're sort of stuck inside Tisiphone right now. How about firing up the fusion lance on that thing and cutting us a new door?"
15. DISCOVERY CHANNEL
From the airlock forwards, the Tenebrae shuttle was a familiar design to Judas Harrow. He had flown vessels very similar to it on any number of occasions, back when he had still been part of the cult. Even though the rear cabins had been completely re-configured to house Lahmi Dathan and his support system, Harrow had no problem steering the little ship through the ragged hole Godolkin had carved in Tisiphone's shell.
As they were leaving the disguised planet-killer, Red had pointed out the cable-cars as they fell past. It looked as though Xandos was going to be on his Fury for a while.
"It won't slow him up for long," Red told him later. "He can just call up one of his people and have them fly a launch over."
"It would have to be someone who already knows the secret of that ship," Godolkin ventured. "Enostine, perhaps?"
"Yeah. When I was under that table, she said something... 'We have our target, our weapon, our saint...' Something like that, anyway. I guess this is what she meant."
Harrow had flown the shuttle as far away from the fleet as he could, then docked it with Godolkin's Banshee. Once the two vessels were joined, he shut down the drives and most of the power on both ships. If they were fortunate, it would be some time before Dathan could locate them.
They had gathered in Lahmi's chamber, and Godolkin had told them what he had seen around Melita. To Harrow, it made no sense at all. "Why would he go to so much trouble to steal Iconoclast technology?" he wondered out loud. "After all, his ships are already a match for anything the Patriarch can throw at him, and with Lahmi at his side..."
"No longer," growled the mutant, bunching his fists. "He turned my research into a scheme to burn worlds. Locked me into this coffin and bled me for ideas, like some kind of herd animal."
"And gathered an army under the guise of a warrior for peace." Godolkin looked as grim as Harrow had ever seen him. "We have his secret, now, and his greatest weapon. That makes him vulnerable. He will stop at nothing to destroy us."
"If he has the time," Red replied. "He's going to have to move against the Conclave soon. In fact, he might move his schedule forward, now that we've seen what he's up to."
"Even if we do not understand it."
"I thought we would find all our answers inside Tisiphone," Harrow said. "Instead, all we got were more questions. Lahmi, did Xandos say anything to you about why he might steal killships?"
"Not as such. He had me construct mathematical simulations, concerning travel times of varying types of ships between certain locations. Altashheth to Malique, Broteus to Melita, Riblah Prime to Erech. Killships were one of
the vessels he had me simulate. Other than that, I cannot say."
Harrow thought hard. Malique was a mutant world. Come to that, so were Erech and Broteus. "Godolkin, do Altashheth, Melita or Riblah Prime have anything in common?"
"They are all uninhabited. Melita and Altashheth have Iconoclast orbital supply dumps. Riblah Prime has a small surveillance outpost. Nothing more links them that I can see."
"Hold on." Red was on her feet, gnawing at her lower lip the way she often did when she was deep in thought. "The killships had a rendezvous point at Melita. That's where Dathan's battleships jumped them, right? So could the other two be rendezvous points too? I mean, if the Conclave had been somewhere else, we'd gone up against another shipyard, and he drove off some different killships to steal, could he have ambushed them at Altashheth?"
Godolkin nodded. "He's planning something at Broteus."
Harrow slapped a fist into his other hand. "That's it! I knew I remembered the name from somewhere - Broteus was where Jubal took the tithe fleet from Admiral Huldah Antonia!"
"Toni?" Red chuckled. "Jubal said he'd messed up a fleet at Broteus, but I didn't realise he'd nicked it from Antonia. Son of a bitch..."
"We cannot stop this on our own," said Godolkin quietly. "Especially if Xandos Dathan is preparing some action on two fronts. If we plan to thwart him, we will need assistance."
Red was nodding. "Oh, I think there's going to be some definite thwartage, guys. That devious scumbag's been pulling me along by the nose ever since he jumped me on Weaver of Paths. And sneck, I bought the whole package, didn't I! A balanced peace in the Accord... Well, nobody uses me like that and gets away with it."
"Is there anyone in this sector my brother has not used?" Lahmi shifted in his support chair. "If we let him go on, we will have the deaths of millions on our conscience, I am sure of it. I say we fight!"
They decided to split up. Durham Red chose to stay with Lahmi on the shuttle, sorting through the data Xandos Dathan had accumulated. She said she needed more clues. Harrow and Godolkin were to take the gunship back to Persephone and make contact with commander Jubal. Red was certain the rotund mutant didn't know about the Tisiphone, and thus might be trusted to turn on Dathan.
Harrow had to agree, although he didn't like leaving her in a sluggish, vulnerable ship with no light-drive. In a tight spot the Banshee could at least go superlight and escape. Red would be trapped.
The Banshee, however, had the correct codes to get back onto the Persephone. Godolkin had altered the transponders. As soon as the ship was detected, it would show up on the Umbrae Nova instruments as Harry Five. If Enostine was gunning for Godolkin, as Harrow felt sure she was, it would be better to be another ship for a time.
The crew of Harry Five would offer no complaint. Their ship had been immolated by an Iconoclast hunger-gun around Kerioth.
Harrow took the gunnery position, while Godolkin sat behind and above him in the flight cocoon. To be honest, Harrow was quite glad to let the Iconoclast take over the gunship's collectives. While he had been comfortable enough with the shuttle, the Banshee was a different class of ship altogether. He didn't want to falter on the way back and arouse suspicion.
They were doing enough to avoid that already. After leaving the shuttle, Godolkin flew the Banshee away from it and the fleet for several minutes at high thrust before making a infinitesimal superlight jump. The light-drives barely had time to cough before they were back in realspace and heading for Dathan's fleet.
Almost immediately, the comms panel lit up. "Banshee Epsilon Five, this is Emissary traffic control. We have you on sense-engine. Where have you been?"
"Where do you think?" Harrow put an angry snarl into his voice. "Trying to get our light-drive balanced after that fiasco around Kerioth!"
"Acknowledged, Epsilon Five. Return to Emissary landing deck four immediately."
Harrow went a bit cold. "Ah, Emissary, we launched from Persephone. We'd like to get back to our correct berth, if at all possible."
"Negative, Epsilon Five. The fleet is mobilising. Get back to Emissary at once. We'll make sure you don't miss your own beds too much." There was a bark of laughter, and silence.
Harrow looked up at Godolkin. "Well?"
"Head for Emissary as requested. Once there, we can collect Crimson Hunter and return to Persephone. Hunter is a fast ship - if the fleet is already mobilising, time is of the essence."
"Time, and not being blown out of the sky by a suspicious gunner."
"Have faith, mutant. Xandos Dathan has failed to destroy us on a number of occasions. Therefore he is fallible, and we shall prevail."
Harrow suppressed a groan. Once Matteus Godolkin became fixated on the complete supremacy of the Iconoclast there was no diverting him, even when flying right into the heart of a hostile mutant battlefleet.
When they arrived at Emissary, the vessel was in turmoil. The two men were able to get off the Banshee and away into the ship's cavernous interior without being stopped. There were thousands of Umbrae Nova personnel running all over the vessel in preparation for the final part of Dathan's plan. All Godolkin and Harrow had to do was make sure they ran everywhere as well, and they fitted right in.
The way from deck four to the bay holding Crimson Hunter took them right across the vessel. As they crossed over the great halls where the ship's fusion cores were mounted, Harrow noticed that they were close to Xandos Dathan's private deck. "He'll still be on Tisiphone, won't he?"
"Don't count on it."
"Still, even if we did meet him, we could kill him."
"We could. However, the Blasphemy ordered us to contact Commander Jubal with all haste. She said nothing about infiltrating Emissary for the purposes of assassination."
"I do wish you wouldn't call her that."
Godolkin blinked at him, slowly, like a snake deciding whether or not to strike. "She might be your saint, mutant. She is my Satan. Do not forget that."
"I hadn't. I also hadn't forgotten that she left her most prized weapons here. I'd like to get them back."
"You are insane."
"And we are both unarmed."
Godolkin considered this for a moment. "It distresses me to say so, but I believe you are right. A short detour, then."
The way to Dathan's private deck finished at the door of an elevator. There was a guard outside, but Godolkin shattered the man's neck with a single blow, not even breaking stride. He dragged the corpse into the elevator with them, and left it there when they emerged, blocking the door.
Red's bedchamber was on the right, the door open. Harrow stepped inside. "Stay here and guard the door."
"You are giving me orders, Harrow?"
"Leave it unguarded, then. Your choice." He padded in. Red had told him she was keeping her weapons in a drawer, but which one? He began circling the room, tapping panels at random.
He was lucky on the fourth try. "Door number four," he muttered. "So strange..."
"Harrow."
"I have them, Iconoclast! Be patient."
"Harrow?"
Exasperated, he looked round. And immediately dropped to one knee behind the drawer.
"Don't," snapped Enostine. "Get your hands away from those weapons."
She had Godolkin around the throat with one hand, a small blade at his neck with the other. "Poisoned," she said. "Move and he'll be dead before he draws breath."
It had to be Enostine. Red had described her in some detail. Harrow felt a moment's nausea as he realised she looked more like a spider than the Aranites.
But why was Godolkin so still? He could have broken her grip without even trying.
He lifted his hands, not too far. "Commander Enostine, I presume."
"You presume much, Judas Harrow. Where's that bloodsucking bitch of yours?"
"Dead."
"Oh, very likely." She smiled horribly. "That's why you're retrieving her war-ware for her. Does she intend to strike against Dathan?"
"Someone has to. He's a madman."
"Harrow," said Godolkin, keeping his voice very level. "She's human."
For a second, Harrow could only blink at him. "Who is?"
"This creature with her blade at my throat, fool! Who do you think?"
If anyone else had said it, Harrow would have laughed the thought off. Enostine looked less like a human than almost any mutant he knew. Even Lahmi had more humanity in him than this skeletal figure.
But Matteus Godolkin was an Iconoclast First-Class, a warrior modified in a hundred ways to detect and destroy mutantkind. On Pyre, he had realised Harrow's own cult-leader was a human in disguise, by smell alone.
If Enostine smelled human to him, then human she was, no matter how massively altered. And it made a perverted kind of sense, too. No wonder she'd been trying so hard to get rid of Godolkin.
"The power behind the throne," he breathed. "A human deep-cover agent. How long has Xandos Dathan been deceived by you, Enostine? Or whatever your real name is..."
"Ever since he was ejected by the Tenebrae, you heretical filth. Six long, disgusting years."
"Over soon, I take it."
"Very soon, mutant. Very soon indeed."
"Thank you," said Godolkin, and broke her arm.
One second his hands were at his sides, and her knife at his neck. In the next he had her wrist in his grip, shattering the long bones of her forearm, slamming her over onto the floor and twisting the knife about until the tip of it touched her left eye. "I'd not blink, if I were you," he growled.
Enostine had gone white with shock, but she kept her composure. Deep-cover agents, Harrow knew, were often modified to withstand any kind of pain. It made torturing them for information more difficult.
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