Part 23 (1/2)

*Kelbor-Hal thinks the Emperor attacked us?' asked Zeth, spinning to face Melgator. *Do you realise how insane that sounds?'

Melgator approached her with a pleading look. *Is it insane to want to hold on to what we have built here over the millennia, Adept Zeth? Is it insanity to suspect that a man who has all but conquered the entire galaxy should allow one world among millions to remain aloof from his empire? No, the attack on our world's information systems was but the first strike in breaking the Treaty of Olympus and bringing the Mechanic.u.m to heel.'

Zeth laughed in his face. *I see now why you brought this a.s.sa.s.sin with you, Melgator a in case I should call you traitor and have you killed.'

Melgator's stance changed from one of supplication to one of aggression in an instant and hands that had once been outstretched towards her now dropped to his sides.

*You would do well to choose your next words carefully, Adept Zeth.'

*Why would that be? Will you have Remiare here kill me if you don't like them?'

*No,' said Melgator. *I would not be so foolish as to anger the Omnissiah by murdering an adept of Mars in her own forge.'

*The Omnissiah?' spat Zeth. *You speak of the Emperor breaking faith with the Mechanic.u.m and in the next breath use him as a reason not to murder me?'

*I speak of the Omnissiah as an aspect of the Machine-G.o.d yet to manifest, not the Emperor.'

*Most believe them to be one and the same.'

*But not you?'

*You already know what I believe,' said Zeth, angered beyond caution. *There is no Machine-G.o.d. Technology is science and reason, not superst.i.tion and blind faith. It's what I've always believed and it's what I still believe. Now if you're not going to kill me, get out of my forge!'

*Are you sure about this, Zeth?' asked Melgator. *Turning your back on the Fabricator General will have dire consequences.'

*Is that a threat?'

*A threat? No, merely a reiteration that we live in dangerous times and that the friends.h.i.+p of powerful allies would be no bad thing in the days ahead.'

*Friends.h.i.+p? Kelbor-Hal asks me to side with him against Terra!' barked Zeth. *What manner of friend would ask such a thing?'

Melgator slid his hands into the sleeves of his robes. *The kind that knows what is best for Mars.'

MELGATOR SLOWLY DESCENDED the steps of Zeth's forge, savouring the memory of Adept Zeth's admission of her disbelief in the Machine-G.o.d. It was all the excuse the Fabricator General needed to seize the Magma City and learn all the secrets of her forge, and Zeth had handed it to them on a plate.

He wiped a hand across his brow. Sweat beaded on his forehead in the intolerably dry heat that wrapped the city like a shroud. Melgator had travelled far and wide in his role as amba.s.sador, but this place had to rank as one of the most inhospitable on Mars.

The sooner it was plundered and laid to waste the better.

Beside him, Remiare hovered effortlessly above the steps, her masked face unreadable in the orange-lit gloom.

*Zeth knows why she escaped the sc.r.a.pcode's attack,' said Melgator. *Or at least she suspects she knows.'

*Of course,' answered Remiare. *Her apprenta was bleeding fear and information from his noospheric aura. I have stored everything I could access from his files on Zeth's work in my memory coils, and I will exload them to the Fabricator General's logic engines upon our return to Olympus Mons.'

*You can lift data from the noosphere? I didn't know that,' said Melgator, more than a little unnerved.

*Of course, the secrets of the noosphere are well known to the Sisters of Cydonia. As are the means to manipulate the mind structure beyond it.'

*What about his aegis barrier?'

*Simplicity itself to overcome.'

*Did he notice your presence?' asked Melgator.

*No, but I decided to fuse the portions of his mind that would have remembered anyway.'

*If he did not detect your intrusion, why the need to burn out his memory synapses?'

Remiare turned her deathly face towards him, and Melgator was reminded that the a.s.sa.s.sins of Cydonia did not take kindly to questions.

*Because I enjoy making living things suffer,' said Remiare. *Zeth's apprenta will no longer be able to form memories that last. His usefulness as an individual is at an end.'

Melgator swallowed, warier than ever of the monstrous creature beside him.

At last he reached the bottom of the steps, where a skimmer palanquin of bronze and polished timber panels stood ready to carry him to the landing platform upon which his transport waited.

*So how did Zeth defeat the sc.r.a.pcode attack?'

The black, soulless marbles of Remiare's eyes flickered as she retrieved and sorted the data. *I do not know and nor does Zeth, not completely, though the apprenta was of the opinion that a female named Dalia Cythera was responsible.'

*The transcriber Zeth brought from Terra? She did it?'

*So it would seem.'

*Then we need to eliminate her as soon as possible,' said Melgator. *Where is she?'

*Unknown. Her biometrics are not registered in the Martian database.'

*She was working in Zeth's forge and she's not even Cult Mechanic.u.m?'

*Apparently not.'

*Ah, Zeth, you're almost making it too easy for us,' chuckled Melgator. *Can you track this Dalia Cythera?'

*I can, but it will be easier just to take the information from the people she knows,' said Remiare. *Archived work dockets list her as being a.s.signed to a team of four individuals: Zouche Chahaya, Severine Delmer, Mellicin Oster and Caxton Torgau. Only Mellicin Oster is still within the Magma City.'

*Where?'

*Within Arsia Mons sub-hive Epsilon-Aleph-Ultima,' said Remiare. *Fiftieth floor, shutter seventeen. Off s.h.i.+ft until 07:46 tomorrow morning.'

*Find her,' hissed Melgator. *Learn everything she knows.'

THE MAG-LEV WAS full, every seat taken, but the threatening presence of Rho-mu 31 a.s.sured them a private cabin, though it was still cramped with the five of them wedged in tight. Rho-mu 31 stood at the door to their cabin, his weapon stave held tight across his chest, leaving the four seats for Zouche, Dalia, Severine and Caxton.

Zouche and Severine sat across from her, and Caxton lay with his head on her shoulder, snoring softly. The pale, artificial light from the window gleamed from his tonsure's scalp, and Dalia smiled as she leaned back against the faux leather chair. She looked out over the Martian landscape as the rest of her companions slept. Even Rho-mu 31 was resting, the glow of his eyes dimmed as he conserved power, though his internal auspex was still vigilant.

Beyond the energy s.h.i.+elded gla.s.s, undulant plains stretched off into the distance, the grey emptiness of the polluted wastelands somehow beautiful to Dalia. Unfinished or abandoned mag-lev lines stretched off into invisibility in long rows of sun-bleached concrete Ts, and the sight brought a forlorn ache to Dalia's chest.

It had been years since she had seen a landscape as vast as this, and even though it was bleak and inhospitable, it was wide open and the heavens above held the landscape protectively close to them. Bands of pollutants striped the sky like sedimentary rock, and columns of light pierced the darkness as s.h.i.+ps broke atmosphere.