The vision wasn’t great, but it was enough for me to recognise the location. The block of flats was in Crouch End, in London. The flat the camera was trained upon was Luna’s.
‘Ah,’ Barrayar said through the phone. ‘Apparently we have one viewer. I’m going to assume that’s you. Just hold on a moment and I’ll get them to zoom in.’
I kept staring at the screen. Anne looked at me, then at the display, obviously confused. I felt the moment where she understood; out of the corner of my eye I saw her put her hands to her mouth. My eyes were locked to the computer.
On the screen, the view from the video feed magnified, zooming in. There was something on the wall of Luna’s flat, a darkish patch next to and slightly beneath one of the windows. ‘Hello, Verus?’ Barrayar said. ‘Have you got a good view? Sorry if the quality isn’t too good, but our men on the ground aren’t exactly professional cameramen.’
I didn’t answer.
‘The packs you can see mounted on that wall are made of black webbing.’ Barrayar’s voice was friendly, conversational. ‘Inside they contain a quantity of C4 explosive. The man setting it up gave me the details about the exact effects of the detonation, something about kilojoules and effective blast radius, but I have to admit, it went over my head. I’m not really an expert on the subject.’ Barrayar paused. ‘What I do know is that your apprentice, Luna Mancuso – actually, come to think of it, she isn’t your apprentice any more, is she? Well, either way, her bedroom is on the other side of that wall. She’s sleeping quite peacefully. At least for the moment.’
Anne looked at the video, then at me, her eyes wide. I couldn’t think of anything to say.
Barrayar was still talking. ‘There are some additional charges too. Apparently our demolitionist was concerned that that curse of hers might interfere with the detonation process, so he went for the redundant approach. To be perfectly honest, it strikes me as overkill, but I’ve always believed that there’s no point in hiring a professional if you aren’t going to listen to his advice.’
I found my voice. ‘What do you want?’
‘I want you,’ Barrayar said. ‘I’m going to be very clear, so that there is no chance for confusion. It is currently 12.21 a.m. The explosives around that flat are armed, but not detonated. They will remain undetonated until exactly 2 a.m. GMT. That’s one hour, thirty-nine minutes from now. When the second hand ticks over to two o’clock, I will press the button in front of me and Luna Mancuso will go from being the most recently promoted mage in Britain to the most recently deceased. Unless you come here.’
‘You can’t do that.’ It was a stupid thing to say, but I wasn’t thinking clearly. ‘The Concord.’
‘An inconvenience.’
‘Luna isn’t part of this. You’ve got no quarrel with her.’
‘I agree,’ Barrayar said. ‘And though I doubt you will appreciate it, I really do not take any pleasure in doing this. Quite honestly, your former apprentice is exactly the kind of mage we would like to have more of. But sacrifices must be made, and unfortunately we want you more than we want her.’
‘I can’t make it back to London that—’
‘Verus, please don’t insult my intelligence. I do not believe for a moment that you can’t get yourself from your current location to here in … let’s see … one hour, thirty-seven minutes.’
‘I need more time.’
‘You have until 2 a.m. Make the most of it. Goodbye, Verus. I imagine I’ll be seeing you soon.’
‘Wait—’
There was a click and the line went dead. I lowered the phone, staring at the screen.
It was a little over a quarter of an hour later.
‘Okay, forget the bomb,’ Anne said. She was pacing up and down the room. ‘What if we go for the guy with the detonator?’
‘That’s going to be Barrayar,’ I said. ‘And who says there’s only one?’
‘If I can get close enough—’
‘If you get close enough, you could stop him pushing that button. But there is no way they are going to let you walk up to touch range.’
‘How many of them are there?’
‘Enough that every future in which I saw that I went there, I was blown up before I got into range.’
‘But they went for you? They didn’t set off that bomb?’
‘Why would they?’ I said. ‘It’s me they’re after. Luna’s a Council mage now. If they kill her, it’ll start an investigation.’
‘So maybe they’re bluffing?’
I shook my head. ‘They’re not bluffing.’ I’d looked at the futures of what happened if we stayed.
Anne stopped pacing and put her hand to her forehead. ‘Okay,’ she said. ‘Okay. What if we use our emergency alarm? Ring Luna’s phone. If she wakes up in time…’
‘I already tried,’ I said. ‘The call’s not getting through. Either a jammer or they’ve shut down her number.’
‘We could—’
‘It’s not going to work,’ I said. I was still sitting in the same chair, the computer on the table, my suitcase opened and forgotten on the floor. ‘They’ve had too long to set this up.’
Anne looked at me. ‘Then what do we do?’
I stared down at the carpet, then smiled suddenly. ‘Helikaon was right.’
‘What?’
‘I thought he was just making a point,’ I said. ‘He wasn’t. He saw this coming.’ I looked up at Anne. ‘The only way I can keep hiding and keep running is if I’m willing to let Luna and anyone else they target die.’
Anne looked back at me with a strange expression on her face. ‘Are you going to?’
I stared into space. It’s funny how the most important decisions in your life can go so fast. It only took me a few seconds to know what the answer was … but really, it was something I’d decided a long time ago. I wasn’t going to take Richard’s path, and I wasn’t going to take Helikaon’s either. ‘No.’
Anne relaxed slightly. ‘So we fight?’
I rose to my feet. ‘Except for the “we” part.’
‘Oh no,’ Anne said. ‘You are not telling me to stay behind on this one.’
‘It’s me they’re after. There’s no reason—’
‘No reason?’ Anne said. There was an edge to her voice. ‘Are you serious? You know what I can do. If you are going to have any chance of winning this, you’ll need me.’
‘I don’t want you to get killed because of me.’
‘And you think I want to sit here and watch?’ Anne looked at me, her eyes challenging. ‘How do you think I’d feel if you don’t come back?’
‘I can’t—’
‘No,’ Anne said. ‘I’m not letting you leave me behind. And you can’t make me.’
I hesitated, looking at Anne. Her expression was set, and as I looked at the futures I realised that she wasn’t going to be swayed, not on this. ‘All right.’
We gated back to England. The park was silent and deserted. I didn’t have a gate stone for where we were going, and we had to make do through mundane means.
The building was in Bromley-by-Bow, and it was a wreck. Five stories of shattered windows and defaced walls rose up out of an urban wasteland, scrubby weeds growing through cracked concrete and around two smaller ruined buildings nearby. Above us, traffic rumbled north and south along a raised A-road, but the area below was dark and empty. To the right were the tracks of a tube line.