‘There’s not a great deal left,’ Annis’ modulated graveyard voice rasped over the comms net.
‘Pagan?’ I asked, still staring at Gregor, who was now staring back at Balor.
‘On it,’ Pagan said. Moments later I saw his idealised Druidic icon appear on the apocalyptic landscape of their internal net. I assumed the virtual flames were the aftermath of an attempted purge. I could see ghost-like shadows in ragged cowls drifting across the jagged obsidian terrain.
Balor turned to me, a bloodstained grin on his predatory maw.
‘I want to fight him,’ he said simply. I ignored him and turned to Rannu.
‘Bring one of the scientists over,’ I told him. All the scientists were kneeling down facing the wall, clutching their ankles. Rannu gestured at one of them with his gauss carbine and the young man staggered over to the operating table. I drew the Mastodon from its shoulder holster. I noticed he’d wet himself, another normal reaction to all of this. I was almost envious of his fear. Or would’ve been if it hadn’t been for the cold, clamminess and discomfort of wetting yourself. He was crying.
‘I’m sorry. I’m afraid you’re the hostage that has to die to make the others cooperate,’ I told him. It wasn’t that I wanted to shoot him; I just couldn’t see what difference one more would make.
‘No… no, please, please don’t…’ he managed to say before sinking to his knees. I needed him just this side of hysterical.
‘Then can you help me?’ I asked him. ‘We don’t have a lot of time, so the moment mine is wasted I have to kill you and start again, okay?’ My voice sounded even and reasonable. He nodded through the tears.
‘When you work on him out here,’ I said, tapping the operating table I was sat on, ‘how do you sedate him?’
‘We feed it with a special protein formula once a day. When we want to take it out we add programmed nanites to its food. They enter its system and send a signal triggering a kind of inert trance we’ve programmed into its bio ware.’
‘Call him it once more and I’ll fucking shoot you myself,’ Mudge snarled. I held up my hand. I looked at Gregor. He was standing still, just staring at Balor, his head moving slightly as he studied the heavy-conversion cyborg. I could no longer ignore the similarity between my old friend and one of Them. Was I looking at Gregor or just a facade the Ninja had made of its victim? I didn’t know.
‘We could try talking to him,’ Mudge suggested in a tone that implied even he didn’t believe that would work. I was also pretty sure that giving him his dinner wasn’t going to work either.
‘Let him out,’ Balor suggested. I ignored him and instead looked down at the terrified scientist kneeling in front of me.
‘What do you do if he breaks out?’ I asked.
‘He can’t; the containment chamber-’ he said, controlling his sobbing somewhat better.
‘Yeah, I get that,’ I said, interrupting him irritably. ‘But you’ll have contingency procedures should it ever happen.’ He thought about this. ‘I’m going to need to hurry you up,’ I said, waving the Mastodon at him.
‘We load the same nanite serum into hypodermics and shoot him with it.’
‘Outstanding. Mudge, help this guy find the serum and a dart gun please,’ I said.
‘You’re letting him out?’ Balor said. The excitement in his voice was nearly sexual.
‘Not to play with,’ I told him. He snorted in derision. ‘Rannu, move the rest of the prisoners to the opposite end of the room.’
‘You’re not keeping us in here if you open that room!’ An authoritarian female voice shouted. I turned to see a hard-faced, middle-aged woman, also wearing a lab coat, looking at me with only a trace of fear on her face.
‘Your choice is that or a bullet in the head,’ I said. She was right: I didn’t want them in the room, but I had no choice because I needed all my shooters in the same place.
‘Morag, Pagan?’ I said. On the net feed I could see them stalking through the burning obsidian ruins of a building that put me in mind of some kind of temple. They were collecting pieces of shattered obsidian that had moving arcane-looking symbols on them. Behind them I could see the smouldering remains of several of the cowl-wearing, ghost-like shadows.
‘We’re just about-’ Pagan began. The window went black and then it filled with static as the net feed was severed. I turned round to where Morag and Pagan were sitting on the floor against the wall. Morag was jerking and fitting, drooling blood from her eyes and ears. I swung off the table, bringing my Mastodon down to touch the head of the scientist in front of me.
‘What’s going on?’ I demanded.
‘I don’t know!’ he howled, obviously terrified and obviously telling the truth. I spun round, bringing the gun up to bear on the hard-faced woman who’d spoken up. She was looking my way as I walked towards her.
‘You! What the fuck happened to them?’
‘You wouldn’t shoo-’ The Mastodon went off, her head exploding all over a stainless-steel bench. The prisoners rather predictably started screaming.
‘Shut up! Shut up!’ I shouted uselessly. I was looking along the prisoners trying to see one who was obviously a signals person or a hacker.
Pagan came alive again and immediately turned to Morag. He connected a wire from one of his plugs to hers. It was the surge of anger at this repeat violation that reminded me of what had happened when Ambassador had tried to feed her all the information he’d taken.
‘Pagan, what’s happening?’ I asked, my revolver still extended. Rannu was trying to calm the prisoners, pushing the odd over-excitable one back down against the wall. Mudge was holding two dart guns in one hand and some very sturdy-looking hypodermic needles in the other. He was looking at Morag, his mouth hanging open in shock. Balor was still staring at Gregor. The net feed in my visual display was still just showing static.
Morag woke up screaming. Her eyes flickered open and they were full of blood. Pagan, his face gaunt and drawn, looked terrified.
‘Are you okay?’ I asked. Morag’s head twitched round to look at me. She said nothing but tried to clear the blood from her eyes. I turned to Pagan.
‘What happened?’ He just shook his head and looked over at Morag. Rannu was at Morag’s side, examining her eyes and ears. Pissed off, I holstered the revolver and unslung my shotgun to cover the increasingly nervous prisoners.
‘Jakob, if we’re going to do this then we need to do it now,’ Mudge said. Everything was unravelling: Morag was down, Rannu was distracted, Balor was doing his own thing and Pagan appeared to be in shock.
‘Pagan.’ He ignored me. ‘Pagan!’ I shouted. He looked up at me. ‘Get over here and cover them.’ He looked at me uncomprehendingly for a moment. ‘Now!’ I shouted with the voice of a thousand parade grounds that all NCOs remembered. Pagan snapped out of it and took my place. I turned round and caught the dart gun Mudge had thrown to me. The hypodermic had less in common with a needle and more in common with a dart from a gauss weapon. I checked the guns. They were smartlinked and effectively gauss rifles. I guessed they needed the velocity to penetrate its – his, I corrected myself – thick skin or whatever passed for skin in his radically altered physiology.
‘Balor, get away from the glass,’ I told him but he ignored me. ‘Balor!’ It didn’t work this time. ‘Fuck it.’ I turned to the terrified scientist who’d given me the info. ‘You, open the door and then get to the back of the room with the others.’
He began to protest, as did some of the other prisoners.
‘Shut up!’ Pagan shouted. He still sounded scared. I didn’t have time to think about what had happened in the net.
‘Do it now!’ I shouted at the scientist and swung the dart gun around to point at him. He stood up and scurried over to a control panel. Some of his fellow prisoners were shouting at him not to do it. Pagan screamed at them again. Gregor had watched the scientist move over to the panel and had in turn stalked expectantly over to the door of his containment chamber. Balor turned and watched him go but thankfully stayed out of our field of fire.