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They turned to the corner where Petrov and Tokarov waited and Katya shook her head. Her uncle walked back to them, but she paused and looked at the door. Perhaps if she left it a couple of hours and tried again, there might be a more sympathetic guard on duty? It was worth a go. She started walking back to the corner to suggest a second attempt later, and had perhaps taken five paces when the thin steel wall between their makeshift prison and the corridor exploded behind her.

Katya was thrown headlong and finished sprawled untidily on the floor. The lights flickered frantically before going out altogether except for some red emergency lights out in the corridor. She looked aghast at the damage. It seemed like a great claw had torn an untidy rent across the metal wall six metres long. The door was about two thirds of the way along the cut and had lost its upper hinges as well as half its height. Katya blinked in disbelief; the edges of the tear were glowing in the dim light. The wall hadn’t been torn or blasted. It had been melted. It seemed that the Leviathan had finally run out of patience.

Out in the corridor from the direction of the moon pool, the sound of shooting started.

CHAPTER 8

Devil Driven

“Orders, sir?”

Katya rolled over and found Petrov crouching nearby the engineer who’d asked the question. Of course, she thought; with Captain Zagadko dead then Petrov was the new commanding officer. As in any military hierarchy, the chain of command is never broken.

“We’re leaving,” said Petrov bluntly. “I think the Vodyanoi’s crew have their hands full and don’t sound as if they’re having an easy time of it. If we stay here, whatever is killing them will exterminate us like fish in a liquidiser.” He stood up. “Everybody! We’re leaving here and heading for the second dock. This place is still well signposted, Lieutenant Tokarov? Good. Make your own way there and don’t be afraid to take circuitous routes. Getting there quickly isn’t important, only getting there alive matters. Don’t bunch up and don’t get killed. Go!”

He was the first to the door and, after a fast look to check that the pirates really were too involved in combat to notice them, led the way. Katya felt her uncle take her hand in his but didn’t look up at him. “Is he doing the right thing, uncle?” she asked.

“It’s crazy to go out there. It’s suicide to stay. Yes, it’s the right thing to do. Let some more Feds go and then we’ll take our chance.” They waited in the shadows as the room thinned out by ones and twos. Katya had assumed some crewmembers were behind them so it was a shock when they found that they were the last ones. They crept closer to the destroyed wall and listened but could only hear the occasional crack of maser fire, now sporadic and reflexive. Lukyan squeezed her hand and they stepped out into the corridor.

Tasya the Chertovka, the She-Devil, was waiting for them, her gun levelled and ready. “Kane sent me to let you out. Said you deserved a chance. And here I find you scurrying into the shadows like vermin.” Her lips thinned and she raised the gun to aim at the ceiling. “Very wise.”

“What’s attacked?” demanded Katya. “How can the Leviathan reach us in here? It’s too big, it can’t possibly have got up that tunnel.”

“It didn’t need to. Come on, we have to get moving unless you want to end up like that.” She gestured casually at the floor. Katya looked down and found the pirate who’d threatened her at the door - or half of him at least. From the navel upwards he’d been vaporised. He’d been right on the other side when whatever had hit the wall had struck. He had never stood a chance. Strangely, the sight was less horrifying than she would have thought; grotesque rather than nauseating. The stench of burnt human flesh was something else altogether, though, and she covered her mouth and nostrils with her hand until the half-corpse was behind them. Katya and Lukyan followed Tasya into the warren of tunnels at a trot.

The emergency lighting was patchy; whole stretches of corridor were in darkness and they had to stumble along holding hands. “We can’t slow down,” hissed Tasya at one point, “it can see in the dark.”

“What is it?” asked Lukyan, full of frustration, but the She-Devil didn’t answer. Perhaps she just wants to get us out of the way and then abandon us, thought Katya. Or perhaps shoot us and report back to Kane that she couldn’t find us. This was the woman who’d led Terran troops through the maintenance tunnels beneath the Dory industrial complex to launch an attack on half-built warboats as they sat in their dry docks, the woman who’d murdered the yard’s supervisor in front of the workers because he wouldn’t open the hatches to the munitions stores. She was a war-criminal, a cold-blooded killer, a traitor to the Russalkin people and she was holding Katya’s hand right that minute. Katya tried to concentrate on not tripping over anything rather than the possibility that the last thing she’d ever know would be the Chertovka’s gun barrel being clapped to her temple. It wasn’t easy.

Then the darkness started to thin with red light leaking around the angle of the corridor ahead and Katya could see a little again. What she couldn’t see was Lukyan.

“Where’s your uncle?” asked Tasya suspiciously.

“He was holding your hand,” Katya snapped back. “What have you done?”

“My hand? He was holding your hand.” She looked back into the gloom from which they were emerging. “He’ll have to make his own way. Come on.”

“No!” Katya shook herself free from the Chertovka’s grip. “I’m going back for him!”

“Suit yourself.” The Chertovka started on ahead. “But you’ll never find him. We’ve passed the heads of a dozen corridors in the dark. He could have wandered down any of them. You’ve more chance of running into…” She paused and looked back. “Come on, girl. You don’t know what’s back there. I wouldn’t leave my worst enemy to that thing.”

“What about my uncle?”

“He’s a survivor. I know his type — clever and cautious. He won’t take any chances. You’ve got a rendezvous point, haven’t you?” Katya reluctantly nodded. “Then he’ll be there. You should be concentrating on reaching it too. He’ll be worried if you’re not there to meet him.” Katya knew she was right, but pride made her hesitate for a moment before following.

They walked in silence for a few minutes before Katya asked, “What attacked you?”

Tasya chuckled dryly. “You’ve been bursting to ask me that ever since we met in that corridor, haven’t you?” She sobered. “Some sort of robotic drone. It came out of the moon pool and opened fire before we knew it was there.”

“It carries a laser, doesn’t it?”

The Chertovka paused in her walking and looked at Katya with an eyebrow raised as if examining an interesting specimen. She started walking again. “Havilland has quite a high opinion of you, Katya Kuriakova. I can see why. What makes you say it has a laser?”

“I saw what it did to the wall of the room we were being held in. A maser wouldn’t do that. I’ve read about lasers but I’ve never seen one in operation.” She frowned. “None of this makes sense.”

“Why not?” Katya noticed that Tasya had slowed her walk, the better to look at her. She didn’t know whether being of such interest to a woman like the Chertovka was a desirable situation.

“Look, masers are common sidearms because they’re great for killing people, but not so good for punching through metal and plastic, right?” Tasya nodded. Of course, Katya thought, she would know all about weapons. “Lasers and bullets penetrate; that makes them bad choices. A gunfight that lets the ocean in doesn’t leave any winners.”