Daniel looked past him at Leon; saw how the boy was smiling, pleased that he’d survived not just one close shave but two, and felt sick to his stomach. Leon hadn’t survived. He only thought he had. Leon had just been injected by one of the creatures with a stream of nano-eggs: tiny pre-programmed machines, from which a host of new mechanoids would fashion themselves, feeding upon their host, converting his body tissue into matter they could use. Daniel shivered and looked away. Leon had just become a walking pod.
At the head of the valley was a ruined chapel, built into the rock of the hillside. It was a good place to stop, if only because the floor and walls were made of solid rock and the chances of anything burrowing up under you were small. They rested there now, Aidan and Johann mounting the watch while the others grabbed what sleep they could.
Unable to sleep, Daniel stood on the ledge beside the shattered window at the top of the chapel, his gloved hand resting loosely on the crumbling brickwork as he looked out over the terrain they had traversed. The distant wall formed a black frame about a landscape that looked as peaceful as a picture from an ancient book, but there was not a square metre that was completely safe. Seven hours they had been inside and they were still less than five kilometres from the Entry Gate.
He let out a long breath. This time was different from the rest, not just in its detail, its fine patterning, but in its general fed. On every other visit, Eden had been filled with an impersonal menace, but this time that menace seemed directed.
Just above him the tiny midge-like bug watched him, an unblinking eye that never left his side. Daniel stared at it, wondering just who was watching him at that moment.
Until today he had assumed that the bugs were there simply to observe; to make a visual record of their passage, but what if they were used for another purpose? Daniel turned, looking back into the shadowed interior of the chapel. The four who were resting lay some three or four metres below the ledge on which he stood, slumped against the right-hand wall, their backs against the solid rock, their visors raised. Looking at their sleeping faces, Daniel felt a genuine fondness for them. They had accounted for themselves well so far. Ju Dun, particularly, had impressed him. The lad had handled himself like a veteran. Nothing had fazed him.
Christian lay to his right, his long body turned slightly on his side, one hand resting on his chest as he slept. Towards the end, in the field particularly, Christian’s natural good humour had begun to slip. But that was hardly surprising. If Eden was a joke, then it was a bleak one. Benoit, to his right, had shown surprising spirit In training, Daniel had wondered about his temperament but he needn’t have worried. Benoifs determinatioato protect his fellows was quite remarkable and that, as much as any other quality, was what got teams through. When you knew someone would cover your back when things got bad, then things could be borne. Just And such spirit bred in a team, just as its opposite, despair, could take root and rot a team’s spirit from within.
Leon stirred in his sleep, then reached up to scratch his shoulder. Daniel studied Leon, knowing that they would have to do something about him before long. He had six hours at most, and in the last of those he would be in torment. But six hours was better than nothing, and the team could use that time. It would give them all a better chance.
It’s hard, Daniel thought, knowing that in some more decent world he might have told Leon what was happening and let him make the choice. But they needed Leon. As long as Leon could walk and fire a gun he was useful to them. So it was essential - for the team - that he didn’t know. There was gunfire, then laughter. Johann’s laughter.
“Six-four,” Aidan said, keeping the score between them. Daniel climbed down then went out the front, joining them on the narrow parapet that overlooked the valley.
“If s quiet,” Daniel said, taking up position between them. Aidan was facing forward, his eyes watching the valley, while Johann scanned the rock above the chapel, making sure nothing came over the top and dropped on them. “Can’t you sleep?” Aidan asked.
“No,” Daniel answered, his eyes scanning the valley for any sign of movement. Aidan considered a moment, then: “Johann, go and join the others. Daniel will take your watch.”
Johann did not argue. He disappeared inside.
Aidan looked back at Daniel. “You feel it too?” Daniel turned, placing his back against the parapet, then nodded. Above the two the tiny camera-probes hovered, sending back their images to the Core. After a moment, Daniel smiled.
“Maybe we should talk to them,” he said.
“The Watchers?”
“Yes. Tell them what it feels like. Maybe they’d be interested.”
Aidan considered that “Maybe.”
A bug fluttered up above the ridge. Daniel shot it before it could settle. “Then again,” Daniel went on, his eyes briefly checking the charge on his gun, “maybe that would only help them. You know, stack the odds against us.” “I’d say the odds were pretty high as it was.”
“Exactly.” Again Daniel’s gun went off. Another bug exploded in mid-air.
“Two-nothing,” Aidan said, keeping the score.
There was silence for a while, punctuated by gunfire and the habitual keeping of the score. Then Aidan spoke again.
“What do you think he wants?”
“Wants?”
“The Man. Why do you think he keeps sending us through?” Daniel watched the ridge above the chapel, conscious of the shape of the clouds, the colour of the sky and the sharp, jagged outline of the rock. The stock answer was that DeVore was testing them, preparing them for some future task, but he had begun to suspect there was another possibility. But what Daniel said was, “I don’t know. I thought I did, but I don’t any more.” Aidan was quiet then. “Leon ...”
“I know.”
“When?”
Daniel shrugged. His instinct was to leave it until the last moment. “Lef s see, huh?”
“Okay.”
And that was it No ethical debate. No weighing of the moral arguments. Just a simple decision to deal with it .
Aidan’s gun chattered -pock-pock-pock - as he picked off a bug that had come too close. In the silence that followed, there was a groan. Daniel lowered his gaze, looking through the open doorway at the sleeping boys. Leon stirred, then groaned again, scratching at the swelling behind his right shoulder blade. Malice. It all came down to simple malice.
Looking up, Daniel saw the bright glint of insectile eyes staring at him from above the ridge. He smiled then blew it into a million tiny pieces.
Aidan gave them another hour, then woke them. They had three hours of daylight. If they were lucky they could get to the circle in that time. If they were lucky.
But the younger boys were rested now, which was good. Because there would be little chance for sleep when the sun went down. Then things would really hot up. Ahead of them, just the other side of the ridge, was thick woodland - three, almost four, kilometres of it There, they would be open to attack from all sides - including the ground beneath their feet If they survived that, then they faced an even more difficult barrier, the river.
At present the river was off to the south of them, but about three kilometres upstream it changed course and turned back upon itself. Where they planned to emerge from the woods there had once been a bridge, with a tiny hamlet just beyond, but these days the bridge was down, and the river there was an icy torrent, rushing between two steep walls of rock. On the far side of the river was a tap. And they would need to use that tap. If they could get across.
Daniel looked about him, seeing how the boys were psyching themselves up for the next stage of their venture. It would have been best, perhaps, if they hadn’t stopped but had pressed on. That way they wouldn’t have had to face things cold again. But then they would have had to face the problem of exhaustion sooner rather than later. Of nerves frayed to the limit and bodies that no longer responded as they should because they were just too tired. Aidan always rested his team as soon as he could afford to. It was one of the reasons why his teams got through and others didn’t But it was not only that. Today things weren’t going to plan. Someone was pushing them - forcing them to take paths they wouldn’t normally take.