‘Firebrand wouldn’t have needed a fully operational base, just somewhere to hide the Clockmaker and keep an eye on it. An abandoned facility would have served them adequately.’
‘But is there anything there at all, after all this time?’
‘Not much on the surface according to the terrain maps, but the old records say Ops Nine went down several levels. This is quite a stable area, geologically speaking. The subsurface areas may still be relatively intact: even to the extent that they’ll still be airtight.’
Clearmountain blew out slowly. ‘Then we’d better get a task force down there immediately. There may be nothing in this, but we can’t take that risk. Our top priority is to secure the Clockmaker.’
‘All due respect, Senior,’ Dreyfus said, ‘but I wouldn’t recommend any kind of visible response to this intelligence. Since nothing’s happened so far, we can be reasonably sure that Aurora hasn’t made the same deductions we have. But if we start retasking assets — sending deep-system vehicles into the atmosphere — Aurora’s going to see that and wonder what’s got us so interested in an abandoned Amerikano base.’
‘And I wouldn’t expect her to take long to put two and two together,’ Aumonier said. ‘No: Tom’s correct. We need to respond, but it has to be a covert approach. We need to secure and protect the Clockmaker before Aurora even has a hint as to what we’re up to. That rules out any mass concentration of assets or personnel.’ She paused heavily. ‘But someone will still have to go in. I’d volunteer to do it — I’ve already survived direct contact with the Clockmaker — but for obvious reasons my participation isn’t an option.’
‘We wouldn’t risk you anyway,’ Dreyfus said. ‘You were a field when you encountered the Clockmaker back then. It’s still a field’s job to go in now.’
‘But it doesn’t have to be you.’
‘This has been my case from the moment I spoke to that Ultra captain. I propose talking with it.’
‘It doesn’t talk. It kills.’
‘Then I’ll just have to find some common ground. A negotiating position.’
Clearmountain looked appalled. ‘Even if that means giving it something in return?’
‘Even if.’
‘I won’t permit it.’
‘Then I suggest you start looking into alternative career options. I don’t think Aurora’s going to have a lot of use for senior prefects when she takes over.’
Someone knocked at the door. Dreyfus recognised the girl — she was the operative who’d informed the tactical room of the hostile action taken by the first four habitats claimed by Aurora.
‘Bad news for us again?’ he asked.
‘Sirs, I’m not sure,’ she said, looking nervously at the strained faces of the seniors. ‘I was asked to bring this to your immediate attention. There’s been a development in the House Aubusson situation.’
‘What kind of development?’ Dreyfus asked, secretly dreading her answer.
‘Sirs, I have imagery obtained by the deep-system cruiser we have on monitoring standby near Aubusson.’ With shaking hands, she placed a compad on the table. ‘There’s been a pressure breach, a major one. Air’s blasting out through a hundred-metre-wide hole in one of the window bands.’
Dreyfus snatched the compad across the table, flipping it around to face him. He made out the sausage-shaped habitat, a jet of cold, grey air geysering out from its side.
‘The cause of this breach?’
She was facing Dreyfus now, answering him to the exclusion of everyone else present, even the supreme prefect herself. ‘Sir, it appears something crashed through the window band. The cruiser’s tracking a metal object, a sphere, moving on a slow free-fall trajectory away from the habitat.’
Dreyfus’s throat was very dry. ‘The nature of this object?’
‘Unknown, sir, but it doesn’t resemble any orthodox space vehicle or weapons system. The cruiser’s asking permission, sir.’
‘Permission for what?’
She blinked. ‘To fire, sir. To destroy the unknown object.’
‘Over my dead fucking body,’ Dreyfus said.
‘We can’t be too careful,’ Clearmountain replied. ‘This could be another part of Aurora’s takeover strategy.’
‘It’s Thalia.’
‘How can you be so sure? We don’t know what Aurora might have planned.’
‘She’s been using weevils to spread her influence from habitat to habitat,’ Dreyfus answered. ‘Why would she change, put all her eggs in one basket, when her existing strategy’s working just fine?’
‘We can’t guess what she has in mind.’
‘I can. She’s going to keep using force of numbers, the way she already has. Whatever this is, it isn’t part of her plan.’
‘Which doesn’t automatically mean it’s anything to do with Thalia Ng,’ Baudry said. ‘I’m sorry to remind you of this, but we have no evidence that she survived the initial takeover phase.’
‘If we think they’re all dead, why haven’t we nuked Aubusson already?’
‘Because there’s a chance, however small, that the citizenry may still be alive. But that doesn’t necessarily imply that Thalia is amongst the survivors.’ Baudry offered Dreyfus a sympathetic look. ‘I know this is tough on you, but we need to take the rational view. How likely is it that Thalia Ng is behind this development, whatever it represents? We don’t even know what the object is, let alone how it came to smash through the habitat. Thalia was just a single deputy field, Tom. She knew a lot about polling cores, and I don’t doubt that she’d have done her best to protect the citizens, but we have to be realistic about the chances of her succeeding. She had next to no experience in high-risk field situations. Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t it true that she’d only participated in a single lockdown before all this happened?’
‘I know Thalia,’ Dreyfus said. ‘She’d have done whatever it took.’
‘Tom, I know you mean well, but we can’t afford to let this foreign object—’
‘Put me through to the deep-system cruiser,’ Aumonier said, cutting over Baudry.
The operative touched settings on her bracelet. ‘Connection should be open, Supreme Prefect.’
‘This is Jane Aumonier,’ said the projected figure. ‘To whom am I speaking?’
A woman’s voice crackled across the room. ‘Captain Sarasota, Supreme Prefect. How may I be of assistance?’
‘I believe you’re tracking something, Captain, something that emerged from House Aubusson?’
‘We have a weapons lock on it, Supreme Prefect. We can fire at your command.’
‘I’d rather you didn’t do that, Captain. Maintain your maximum defensive posture, but approach the unidentified object close enough to sweep for infrared hotspots. I want to know if there are survivors aboard that thing.’
‘And if there are?’
‘Bring them in. As fast as you can.’
CHAPTER 28
Dreyfus fastened the safe-distance tether with an unshakeable conviction that this would be the last time he performed the action. Either he would not be coming back from Yellowstone, or Jane Aumonier would not be waiting for him here, in this weightless room, upon his return. The significance of either outcome caused his hands to shake as he locked the catch into place.
‘How long before you leave?’ Aumonier said as Dreyfus came to a halt.
‘Thyssen says there’ll be a ship fuelled and prepped within thirty minutes.’
‘A deep-system cruiser, I take it?’
‘No, I opted for a cutter. The amount of armament’s immaterial. All that matters is that we sneak in unobserved.’
‘We, Tom?’
‘Pell will fly me to the drop-off point. I’ll walk the rest of the way.’