The Thousand Emperors

Kulic nodded. ‘He argued with Bruehl and my father before we headed for the cities. Bruehl got into a fight with Sillars, and . . .’ He licked his lips, eyes darting towards Jacob.

‘Go on.’

‘My father told me Bruehl killed Sillars. Sillars was afraid Bruehl might compromise their mission and alert the Coalition authorities to their purpose here. I remember one particular night just before we set out, when my father took me to Sillar’s house. He had been stabbed, and was losing too much blood for even his microchines to cope. He died that same night. My father claimed it was God’s will, and told me I was never to tell anyone what had happened.’

‘That’s something I was wondering,’ said Jacob. ‘If they had become so fervent in their beliefs, then why in hell didn’t your father or Bruehl ever think to tell anyone else who they really were, where they’d come from?’

‘I don’t know,’ Kulic replied, shaking his head. ‘Maybe they were afraid of what might happen to them. But after Sillars’ murder, something went out of my father. It’s like he chose to pretend it hadn’t happened. But when he died, he told me the truth of what he was, and told me someone like you would come one day.’

Jacob stared at the old man with sick disgust. It was nearly unbelievable so much could have gone so badly wrong, but all the evidence was right there, in the transceiver gripped in his own hand. Kulic couldn’t have lied to it if he’d wanted to.

‘Doesn’t anyone from the cities ever come out here?’ asked Jacob.

Kulic shivered. ‘The people in the cities don’t care about us, and I’m glad of it. Sometimes they . . . they watch us, from a distance. But not in human form.’

Jacob stepped closer to him. ‘There’s something I need to find,’ said Jacob. ‘It’s the reason I was sent here, but it could mean travelling to one of the cities.’

Kulic stared back at him with bright damp eyes. ‘I can help you.’

‘You don’t like it here, do you?’ Jacob had been able to feel the old man’s hatred for the people he lived amongst, seeping through the words he had spoken to the transceiver, here in the quiet dark beneath his house.

‘I despise them all,’ said Kulic. ‘Ever since I learned of my father’s true nature, I realized why I never felt like I belonged. There are fewer and fewer of the Left-Behind each year – most of those houses you saw when we arrived have been boarded up and abandoned for a long, long time. There are scarcely any children born these days.’ Kulic swallowed. ‘Even so, the cities frighten me. I’m scared that if I went there, they might change me into something that isn’t really human.’

Jacob placed his hands on the old man’s shoulders, thinking how easy it would be to snap his neck in an instant. Instead he patted him.

‘Your father and his colleagues would have maintained a cache of equipment I can use,’ said Jacob. ‘Do you know of it, and where it’s located?’

In truth, he already knew where it was, thanks to the transceiver, but he wanted to test the old man, see if he told the truth. If he lied or acted evasive in any way, he would prove himself useless, and Jacob would be left with no alternative but to dispose of him immediately.

‘I know where it is,’ said Kulic. ‘It’s not far from here, buried at the bottom of an abandoned well.’

Just as well you told the truth, thought Jacob, patting Kulic’s shoulders one last time before stepping back and letting his hands fall by his side.

‘We’ll get some sleep and leave in the morning,’ said Jacob, and led the way back up the steps.

THIRTEEN

Luc arrived back at his apartment without incident and found several messages waiting for him from Eleanor. This time, instead of ignoring them he sent back an immediate response. He had a sudden desperate urge to see her, to hold her in his arms.

While he waited, he spent a few minutes checking up on Ambassador Sach’s movements. De Almeida’s networks showed him the Ambassador had most recently paid a visit to the Vanaheim residence of Meinhard Carter, another member of the Council.

When Luc tried to direct one of de Almeida’s countless micro-mechants to approach Carter’s home, he discovered the precise limits to how far de Almeida’s networks could reach, when it got to within only a few metres of a window before its signal faded to static. After that, it dropped permanently out of contact, presumably victim to Carter’s own army of personal security devices.

Luc thought again of all that Ambassador Sachs had said to him on board the Sequoia, including the revelation that the Ambassador had been able to see him during Vasili’s funeral service. Somehow Sachs tied into all of this, and it was clear the Ambassador knew far more than he was letting on.

Even so, he appeared to be doing nothing more than he might be expected to do – taking part in scheduled meetings and paving the way for Reunification, while perhaps also smoothing over the ripples caused by Vasili’s sudden disappearance from public view.

Despite the limitations de Almeida had placed on Luc’s access to her networks, he found he could nonetheless access a basic summary of Meinhard Carter’s role within the Council. It proved, however, to be bafflingly vague. Carter was involved in some kind of research and development, and chaired an advisory body on deep-space exploration. That advisory body included several other Councillors charged with constructing the starships used to carry new transfer gates between old and new colonies. Several of them had worked on Founder research prior to the Schism.