The Thousand Emperors

Maxwell regarded him uneasily. ‘Or that Zelia sent you here. I won’t know one way or the other until they arrive – by which time, I suggest, you should be as far away from here as possible.’

‘No,’ said Luc, ‘not yet.’

‘There isn’t the time—’

Luc held up the book. ‘It was Father Cheng, wasn’t it? He gave the order to kill Adriana Placet.’

‘It seems you’ve been making good use of your time,’ said Maxwell, nodding at the book.

‘Antonov said that Cheng found a second entrance to the Founder Network. He also said Adriana Placet was killed because she was asking too many questions. Was it because she found out what Cheng was up to?’

‘She knew something was going on, but not necessarily what.’ Maxwell stepped closer, taking a grip on Luc’s arm. ‘You need to finish what Sevgeny started.’

Luc stood and pulled his arm away. ‘What the hell are you talking about?’

‘I may not know all the details, but I certainly know enough to understand that Father Cheng is doing something that is endangering us all. You need to go to that station Sevgeny visited and locate whatever data he found, and show the Tian Di what Cheng is doing. But that won’t happen unless you get the hell away from here first.’

‘But how can I possibly do that if I don’t have the protocols Vasili—’

‘You had the protocols in your hands,’ Maxwell said softly. ‘Hence my concern when you didn’t bring them back.’

Luc stared at him for a moment, then cursed under his breath. ‘The book I found on Vasili?’

Maxwell nodded. ‘Which is why you must find it again.’

‘Surely you must have copies of the protocols!’

‘Whoever it was amongst the Eighty-Five who hid the protocols in the library’s databases erased them remotely some time very recently, presumably once they realized Sevgeny was on their trail. That means, unfortunately, that the copy of them in Sevgeny’s book is now the only one still in existence.’

‘I don’t even know if the book is still in Vasili’s home. For one thing, it was damaged by the heat from the blast that killed him. For all I know, his house mechants threw the damn thing out.’

‘That’s a chance you’re going to have to take. Without that book it would take you months to find the station.’

‘But how can I possibly get away from here? I’m stranded since Zelia’s flier disappeared.’

‘There’s a hangar below us, with a flier for emergency use by Cheng or anyone else in the Eighty-Five with an urgent need to make use of it,’ explained Maxwell, stepping closer to the door. He gestured to the book still in Luc’s hands. ‘Take that with you and learn what you can once you’re away from here.’

Luc hesitated for a moment, then stuffed the book into a large pocket on the inside of his jacket, taking care not to let his fingers brush against the pages.

‘Why can’t you use that flier to get out of here yourself?’

‘It’s programmed to refuse my orders under any circumstances,’ Maxwell replied.

‘But if I took you on board with me—’

Maxwell shook his head. ‘Then it would never even take off.’ He shrugged. ‘Besides, where the hell could I go?’

Luc followed him along a short corridor, then down a winding stairwell, its walls bare and undecorated compared to the rest of the library complex.

‘But where can I go from here?’ he called after Maxwell’s retreating back. ‘I’ve got no idea what the hell’s happened to Zelia, where she’s gone or if she’s in trouble of some kind. Without her, there’s nowhere for me to go.’

They came to a single steel door at the bottom of the stairwell. The temperature had plummeted, the air frosting with their every breath.

‘I knew Zelia well, back in the day,’ said Maxwell, stopping for a moment, ‘and she’s more resourceful than you imagine. Whatever’s happened to her, I wouldn’t assume you’ve seen the last of her just yet.’

Luc followed him through this last door. Suddenly he was outside, a freezing wind sucking all the heat from his skin, as he found they had emerged into the cavernous hangar he had first sighted from the foothills. There was, he saw, enough space to park a fleet of fliers.

The storm that nearly killed him had passed, and the sun hung sharp and bright in a sky striped with narrow wisps of cirrus. He stepped forward, hugging himself against the cold, and realized belatedly that he’d left his cold-weather gear behind. Idiot.

Mechants dropped down from some point in the cavern’s ceiling and moved towards them, weapons unfolding from their bellies. Luc turned to look at Maxwell, who had come to a halt just a short distance beyond the steel door.

‘This is as far as I go, I think,’ said Maxwell, retreating closer to the door.

Luc glanced between Maxwell and the approaching mechants. ‘Are we in any danger?’