with heads bowed. Otto spoke over it, as he'd spoken over the makeshift graves of a half-dozen good men over the years. What could he say? That he barely knew him? He said something about bravery and belief, and keeping the line, but he found it hard to feel any of it, and kept it brief. His words felt false. Kaplinski was still out there. It was a world of monsters.
Otto was one of them.
Valdaire thanked Chures for saving her life, and said nothing more.
Commander Guan looked to Otto. His irises were so brown as to be almost black. Few people had eyes like that in Germany. Otto always found them hard to read. Otto nodded. Commander Guan said something — Otto's Mandarin wasn't good enough to catch it, not out here without Grid support — and the men who'd lowered Chures to his final rest started to fill in the hole. When they were done they drank water from woven bottles, sluiced the dirt from their hands and wiped their faces with bright white towels, leaving streaks of forest mould on them. They walked silently to their armoured suits, which stood apelike, slumped forward until their wearers approached, at which point they straightened, swung their arms wide and opened, becoming metal flytraps that swallowed the men whole. Chestplates swung down, helmets engaged and auto-bolting mechanisms whirred. With the men imprisoned inside them, the war machines came to sinister life, a high whine coming from their powerplants.
Commander Guan addressed the three foreigners, his translation programme switching to English. 'We will leave now. You have twenty-four hours to locate the man you seek, at which point you will be taken to the border, successful or not. We will escort you. Your machine — ' he gestured to Valdaire '- you must leave it turned off.'
'We'll be done here before today is over, if we can leave it on. The phone holds the location of the hacker Giacomo Vellini,' said Otto.
Guan regarded him for a second, then gave a curt nod. He turned to the side and looked up at the grey sky. He spoke into his suit. There were pauses in his speech as someone replied.
'Very well,' he said eventually. 'There are no AI in the PRC, no near-I, no thinking machines, and nothing possessing proficiency in any three areas that outstrip the capabilities of a human mind. All such machines violate the Tenets of Balance, and are illegal. Our allowance of this machine's presence is discretionary. Should the machine attempt to connect to Chinese sovereign Gridspace or attempt any interference with People's Dynasty machinery it will be destroyed. Do you understand?'
Valdaire nodded, her hands tightening around the phone.
'Understood,' said Otto.
'Good,' said Guan. Troopers marched to each of the foreigners, one to each side, and took them by the upper arms in hard machine grips. 'You may only activate your machine in the secondary tactical room. You are to remain in the secondary tactical room,' said Guan. 'Do not attempt to leave it without express permission. Any attempt to escape and you will be restrained forcibly. If you should leave the room you will be arrested and tried as spies in a People's Republic court. If you leave and attempt to enter the command deck, gunnery deck or power room, you will be shot. Is this also understood?'
The three nodded.
'Very well. We will now depart.'
The jets on the soldiers' armoured suits ignited one after the other, burning bright and loud, filling the forest with their noise.
The Chinese soldiers rose up, carrying the trespassers with them. The belly of the heavy lifter cracked open, spilling harsh golden light into the forest, and they flew within.
CHAPTER 17
Bear roared and gutted a pirate with a vicious uppercut. His other paw cleaved another into strips. Richards dodged back and forth between a trio of snarling buccaneers, jabbing unconvincingly at them with his sword.
Knives passed into Bear's side and long-barrelled jezzails went off in the aft-castle, their balls bringing forth puffs of stuffing. Bear was unperturbed. He picked up one of the pirates menacing Richards and threw him over the side. Cowed by the toy's apparent invulnerability, the pirates fell back towards the stern of the ship.
'Stop! Stop, I say. Let us parley! Cease fighting! Avaunt, arraunt! Desist!'
Bear kept up his guard but stopped swiping. The pirates backed down. Richards stood at Bear's back, sword at the ready.
There was a motion in the crowd of pirates, and a familiar face came to the fore.
'Percival Del Piccolo, poet swordsman of wit, cavalier, debonair liberator of ladies' virtues, pirate king and all round irritant to tyrants…'
Bear groaned. 'You! Can it, clown, we've heard this before!'
Piccolo did not heed him. '…evil Maharajahs and Grand Viziers with ideas above their station, makes common cause with no man! I, sirs, am a free spirit, a sky captain. No man is my friend unless he has proved himself to me.' He glowered, and Richards gripped his sword tighter, but then his frown cracked into a wide grin and a wink. 'And you have more than done that, a toy like a bear and an idiot fool! My dear friends! Welcome aboard the Kurvy Kylie II.' He sprang lightly onto the ship's rails and hung from a rope by one hand. 'Men, put up your pistols! Sheathe your swords! These are true friends.' He doffed his silly hat at them and bowed his head. 'I am at your service. I owe you a boon, for is it not said that once a man saves another man's life, that life belongs to the saviour? Ask of me anything!'
'I,' said Richards, 'am looking for Lord Hog.'
'Ohohohoho!' said Piccolo, jumping down onto the deck. 'Maybe apart from that! No one goes looking for Lord Hog; one prays that he does not come looking for you. He is the death of hope! No cutlass or ball can kill such a thing. You speak madness. Come, sail with me to adventure and riches instead, so we may live out the last days of the Earth as princes among men!'
'I mean it,' said Richards. 'If I can find him, I can stop all of this. The Terror, Penumbra, all of it.'
Piccolo frowned for a moment. 'No! Really?'
'Yep,' said Bear. 'Me and sunshine here, we're on a mission.'
A wide smile broke across Piccolo's face. He clapped his hands together slowly, threw back his head and laughed outrageously. 'Oh, marry!' he bellowed. He clapped Richards on the shoulder. 'Very well! Very well! Men!' he called. 'Men, prepare for the adventure to end all adventures!' He leapt again onto the railing, and waved his hat around in the air. 'We sail to save the world or die in the attempt!'
'Aye, cap'n!' the pirates called and all of a sudden there was a hustle and a bustle. Lines were tightened, decks were swabbed of blood. A burly black man went to the aft-castle and grasped the ship's wheel. Lines from this passed through a series of pulleys to halters about the air-whales' heads. Pirates took long gaffs and prodded them. They whistled. 'Where to, Cap'n?' called the helmsman though a cupped hand.
'Indeed, where to, Mr Richards?'
'Just Richards,' said Richards. 'Is there an end to the pylon line?'
'There is,' said Piccolo, 'though it is a dangerous voyage.'
'There, then.'
'Very well! To the northwest,' called Piccolo. 'We go north first, to the Great Western Ocean, then on to the city of Secret. Or all is lost?' said Piccolo with a smile with a toothpaste twinkle. 'I like it. I like it a lot! A perilous part of the world, full of adventure! Northwest, Mr Mbotu! Northwest!'
'Aye, aye, Cap'n.' Bosun Mbotu spun the wheel.
The sky-whales sang and paddled at the air. Majestically, the Kurvy Kylie II tracked round.
Richards watched the crew at work. He marvelled at the amount of cliche whoever had constructed this world had managed to cram in. Its creator might have been an ace hacker, but he wouldn't win any creative awards. 'All we need now to finish this off is a little song,' he said to Bear.
He was not long disappointed.
Piccolo paced his metal skyship, checking lines and pulling levers, laughing with his men, and directing their efforts as they lustily sang cereal commercial jingles with improvised piratical lyrics.
