Final Days

‘A friend of mine disappeared. I’ve reason to think Maalouf might be able to help me find him.’

‘And this friend’s name?’

Saul glared at Narendra. ‘Now, that really isn’t any of your fucking business.’

Narendra gestured to Eren, who rammed Saul in the small of the back hard enough to send him sprawling face-down across the rough-textured concrete. A moment later, Eren straddled him, taking a grip on Saul’s bound wrists and twisting his arms up and over his head.

Saul screamed from the sheer pain: it felt as if his arms were being ripped out of their sockets. An eternity seemed to pass before Eren finally let go.

‘Jeff Cairns,’ Saul gasped, from where he lay helpless. ‘I thought Farad could help me find a man called Jeff Cairns.’

‘We know who he is,’ said Narendra. ‘He and Farad once worked together. What do you know about their work?’

‘Nothing.’ Saul shook his head vigorously, so his cheek rasped against the concrete. ‘Something off-world, that’s all I know. Might be mineral assessment or something else, I have no fucking idea.’

‘But you’ve been assigned to find both him and Maalouf?’

‘No.’ Saul twisted his head around so he could finally look up at Narendra. ‘I wasn’t assigned by anyone. I’m here for personal reasons, that’s it.’

‘You’ll need to give me more than that.’

The last thing Saul wanted to do was tell Narendra about Olivia. ‘All I know is that Jeff’s in some kind of trouble. That’s the sum total of my knowledge.’

Narendra addressed Eren in rapid-fire Turkish. When he looked down at Saul again, his expression was tight- lipped. ‘No,’ he replied. ‘There’s some other reason you’re here.’

Eren dragged Saul over to the window, fumbling one-handed with the latch and pushing it wide open. Saul tasted air damp from the condensation that gathered under the city canopy, as Eren pushed him up against the frame. He struggled, but Eren seemed to expend little effort in pushing Saul head-first out through the window, a firm grip on his collar the only thing keeping Saul from tumbling to his death. He felt his bowels turn to water as he stared at the void separating him from the ground.

‘Eren,’ said Narendra, coming to stand by the window, ‘thinks we should let you drop, if you have nothing useful to tell us.’

Saul stumbled over his own words in panic, his heart beating so hard it felt like a terrified animal trapped in his chest. ‘All I know is Jeff was on to something that the ASI’s been trying to cover up, that’s it, I swear I have no idea what it is, but they’re killing anyone who was involved in any way.’

‘And this is the truth?’ demanded Narendra.

‘Goddammit, yes.’

‘Are you aware,’ asked Narendra, ‘that you were followed as soon as you arrived in Sophia?’

‘By your people, yes.’

Narendra uttered a brief word to Eren, and Saul found himself suddenly pulled back from the window. He collapsed in a heap on the floor, his heart still thundering, and watched Narendra discard the burned-out stub of his cigarette and grind it under his boot. Saul sensed a shift in the atmosphere. Perhaps, he hoped, they were starting to believe him.

‘Not our people,’ Narendra replied. ‘Not Al Hurr or any of the other groups.’

‘I don’t understand.’

‘Nor do I. Three men tracked you all the way across town from the Array, all of them ASI agents. At first we assumed they were working in conjunction with you, but then it became clear they were following you without your knowledge.’

‘You’re saying my own people were following me?’

Narendra nodded. ‘There’s been a steady influx of government operatives through the Array, over the past couple of weeks. We assumed it was the beginning of another clampdown, particularly when people living here began to disappear or turn up dead. But the military forces pouring in through the Array over the past few days are far greater in number than at any point in the past. Not only that, the news from Earth is full of . . . things, indescribable monstrosities growing like weeds. Do you know what they are?’

Military forces? ‘No,’ said Saul, ‘I don’t. And I’m not sure anyone does.’

Narendra stared at Saul for what seemed like a long time, then spoke again to his colleague. Eren’s reply was angry, but something in the defiant way Narendra replied suggested that he was standing his ground over some issue.

‘I’m going to tell you something you don’t know,’ continued Narendra, turning back to Saul. ‘And I want you to know the only reason I’m sharing it with you is because it’s clear something very extraordinary is taking place – both here and back on Earth. Farad Maalouf was my brother.’

Saul gaped at him. He recalled the pictures he’d seen of Maalouf and, studying Narendra’s face, saw what might be a family resemblance in the eyes and the shape of his jaw.

‘You just said he was your brother?’

‘My half-brother, to be precise,’ Narendra continued, quivering with barely suppressed rage. ‘He was gunned down like a dog, just a few streets from here.’

‘And you think I had something to do with it? I only just got here!’

‘You are an ASI agent, so it would be foolish of me to take you at your word. We are on different sides of a