relevant IDs and computer codes as soon as possible.'
'Good. You won't need to contact us to find out if this has worked. You'll know. Get in touch again this time tomorrow, if it does. You can then take her off our hands and arrange the payment.'
'Will do. Good luck.'
'We shouldn't need luck.'
Welles had completed the first part of his promise at least. ID codes confirming Talia as a physician's assistant and Dexter as an ambulance driver arrived by some unknown courier less than an hour after the message had concluded. Also included were details of all the pass codes and computer codes necessary.
Talia had made her share of false IDs in her time, and these certainly looked as if they would work.
As to whether Welles had been successful in delaying the security changes, that would have to wait. She had taken care to memorise the map of the hospital complex, and she and Dexter had gone over the plan until he could recite it in his sleep. She was still sceptical about this whole endeavour, but Welles had been telling the truth, and Dexter had talked her into it.
Besides, the reward offered was certainly worthwhile.
And now they had accepted the mission, she devoted her every effort to completing it.
She checked her watch. 18:52. Perfect. The shifts at point C would be changing soon. She could get past them on the way in, assuming Welles' ID worked, and she should have enough time to get herself and Delenn out before the changeover occurred.
One of the guards stepped forward to her. 'ID?' She passed the card over to him, and he ran it through his security device. The other guard looked at her closely. She was breathing quietly and standing naturally, as though this were a routine she had gone through a hundred times before.
'Checks out,' said the guard, handing her back the card.
'I don't recognise you,' said the other.
'I normally work at the Ellison Building in Sector Two–o–nine,' she replied glibly. 'They're short–handed over here tonight, so I was called in to help out.'
The guard looked a little suspicious, but then nodded. 'In you go.'
Talia passed through the first checkpoint, into the hospital complex itself. She kept her breathing under control, reliving the map of the layout in her mind. She could see every corridor, every turn and corner and room. Every security checkpoint.
And she could see her final destination. The room where Delenn herself lay.
Full of determination, Talia headed on her way.
Sinoval had seen many wonders in his life, images that would stay with him forever. The huge archway that led to the Well of Souls; the sight of Earth beneath his feet, lost and helpless; the vision of Valen in the Dreaming as Varmain had died.
All of these paled before the simple wonder on the face of a madman and a betrayer.
Marrain walked slowly through the hallway, his eyes alight. As Sinoval looked around, he saw nothing but a decaying and barren relic of an ancient war, left in a forsaken place to die. He remembered the last time he had been here, seeing a tiny ray of hope in this place. It had changed greatly since then. Although only a year or so had passed for him, an entire millennium had gone by for this station.
He saw nothing but rust and decay and the erosion of a once–mighty fortress, but then he supposed he had no romance in his soul.
For Marrain, it was something else.
'It was here,' he whispered, looking around. 'Here, we met Valen.... and just over there a Shadow Warrior attacked us. It had got on board somehow and Parlonn and I.... we fought it back to back. It slashed my chest open, and left a scar....'
He paused. There would be no scar, of course. Not on this body. It was not his after all. It was a dead body, infused with a soul departed more than nine centuries.
'They are dead now. Everyone. Valen, Derannimer, Parlonn, Nukenn.... Even Nemain and Mannamann. They were both so young then. Dead for centuries now.
'All dead.... save the two of us.' He looked into the shadows. 'I, the Betrayer, and Anla'Verenn–veni. The Place Of Restored Dreams. That was what we called it. A priestling name of course, but.... an apt one.... even for a hardened warrior like myself.'
He closed his eyes, his body shaking. 'Where are your dreams now, Anla'Verenn–veni? Where are your glories, your triumphs, your holy places? Lost and gone to the three winds, all of them. Dead, dead, dead....
'All is dead. All lives and all dies, and all decays and withers.'
His eyes opened, and a fierce darkness burned from within him. He pointed at Sinoval. 'You will die.' And then at Kats. 'And you.... I can see it in you, past the facade of your beauty, beyond the mask you create for yourself, beneath the illusions and the masquerades....
'There is only death.
'But not for me,' he added plaintively. 'All die, but Marrain, the Betrayer.'
'All die,' Sinoval said firmly, looking at Kats. She was shaken, but firm. He heard her whispering a soft prayer under her breath, and he suddenly realised why. For an instant, in Marrain's rant, she would have seen Kalain, her torturer. He reached out a hand to steady her, but she pulled away. Her eyes flashed a brief thanks to him.
'We all die, even Marrain, the Betrayer. Do as we have spoken, and your death shall be an honourable one.'
'What is honour to the dead? Do you think Parlonn cares that I gave my honour to save his? No, he is dead, his body and bones dust in a distant world. Do you think Derannimer's dead carcass cared that I loved her? No, she is gone.
'All are gone.'
'But there are those who live now, Marrain. The now is all we have, all you have. You have been given another chance at life, an opportunity to undo the mistakes you made before.
'Are you ready to grasp that chance, Marrain? Because if you are not, then there is nothing here for you, and you might as well become the dead bones you speak of.'
'No,' Marrain whispered after a time. 'I live, and I will do as you have asked of me. It will be.... interesting to see them again. I wonder how much they have changed, how much they remember, how much they have forgotten.'
'Apparently they are much the same as they were in your day, but we shall see.'
'Why this place?' Marrain asked suddenly. 'Why.... bring us all back here? This does not belong in this age. It is a part of the past, the legends of long ago.'
'It is the one place I can be sure they will recognise and come to. It is as holy a place for them as it is for us, and they cannot deny its call. Besides, you will be stronger here, in this place where you once walked.... before.'
'Yes. I walked here once. Come.... their shrine was.... this way. I think. I remember the day Zarwin built it. It was the last day he was here, the day they were banished.'
Marrain looked at the corridors before him, and began to walk. Slowly Sinoval followed him, Kats a few steps behind. Around them all, hidden in the shadows but still there, were the guards. The two Praetors Tutelary, who guarded their Primarch with their lives, and nine of the Primarch's Blades, led by Lanniel. They were sworn to protect Sinoval and, although unknown to her, Kats as well.
Sinoval looked at her, wishing not for the first time that he had been able to persuade her to remain behind on Tarolin 2.
'I will go with you.' She had said those words calmly and dispassionately, yet he understood the strength behind them.
'You should remain here. It will be.... dangerous.'
'I have faced danger before.'
'I did not say you had not, my lady, but this.... will not be easy, not even for me. Marrain is strong and dedicated, but he is also insane. I can hope only to appeal to whatever remains of the man he was before love and hatred drove him mad. He is unpredictable and may take it upon himself to hurt you.'
'If he is so dangerous, then why include him in this?'
