know what to make of that, but he had a nasty feeling that he knew exactly what it meant. ‘And if they don’t hand them over?’ Antoinette asked, easing into a seat. ‘Then some force may be in order,’ Clavain said. Xavier nodded. ‘That’s what we figured.’ ‘I hope it will be brief and decisive,’ Clavain said. ‘And I have every expectation that it will be. Scorpio’s preparations have been thorough. Remontoire’s technical assistance has been invaluable. We have a well-trained assault force and the weapons to back them up.’ ‘But you haven’t asked for our help,’ Xavier said. Clavain turned back to the image of the ship, examining it to see if there had been any changes in the last few minutes. To his annoyance, the software had started building up scablike accretions and spirelike spines along one flank of the hull. He swore under his breath. The ship looked like nothing so much as one of the plague-stricken buildings in Chasm City. The thought hovered in his mind, worryingly. ‘You were saying?’ he said, his attention drifting back to the youngsters. ‘We want to help,’ Antoinette said. ‘You’ve already helped,’ Clavain told her. ‘Without you we probably wouldn’t have seized this ship in the first place. Not to mention the fact that you helped me to defect.’ ‘That was then. Now we’re talking about helping in the attack,’ Xavier said. ‘Ah.’ Clavain scratched his beard. ‘You mean really help, in a military sense?’ ‘Storm Bird’s hull can take more weapons,’ Antoinette said. ‘And she’s fast and manoeuvrable. Had to be, to make a profit back home.’ ‘She’s armoured, too,’ Xavier said. ‘You saw the damage she did when we busted out of Carousel New Copenhagen. And there’s a lot of room inside her. She could probably carry half of Scorpio’s army, with space to spare.’ ‘I don’t doubt it.’ ‘Then what’s your objection?’ Antoinette asked. ‘This isn’t your fight. You helped me, and I’m grateful for that. But if I know Ultras, and I think I do, they won’t give up anything without some trouble. There’s been enough bloodshed already, Antoinette. Let me handle the rest of it.’ The two youngsters — he wondered if they had really seemed so young to him before — exchanged coded looks. He had the sense that they were privy to a script he had not been shown. ‘You’d be making a mistake, Clavain,’ Xavier said. Clavain looked into his eyes. ‘Thought this through, have you, Xavier?’ ‘Of course…’ ‘I really don’t think you have.’ Clavain returned his attention to the hovering image of the lighthugger. ‘Now, if you don’t mind… I’m a little on the busy side.’ CHAPTER 33 ‘Ilia. Wake up.’
Khouri stood by Ilia’s bedside, watching the neural diagnostics for a sign that Volyova was returning to consciousness. The possibility that she might have died could not be dismissed — there was certainly very little visual indication that she was alive — but the diagnostics looked very much as they had before Khouri had taken her trip to the cache chamber.
‘May I help?’ Khouri turned around, startled and ashamed at the same time. The skeletal servitor had just spoken to her again. ‘Clavain…’ she said. ‘I didn’t think you were still switched on.’ I wasn’t until a moment ago.‘ The servitor advanced out of the shadows, coming to a halt on the opposite side of the bed from Khouri. It moved to one of the squat hunks of machinery attending the bed and made a series of adjustments to the controls. ‘What are you doing?’ Khouri asked. ‘Elevating her to consciousness. Isn’t that what you wanted?’ ‘I… I’m not sure if I should trust you or smash you apart,’ she said. The servitor stepped back from its handiwork. ‘You should certainly not trust me, Ana. My primary goal is to convince you to turn over the weapons. I can’t use force, but I can use persuasion and disinformation.’ Then it reached down beneath the bed and tossed something to her with a lithe sweep of one limb. Khouri caught a pair of goggles equipped with an earpiece. They appeared to be perfectly normal shipboard issue, scuffed and discoloured. She slipped them on and watched Clavain’s human form cloak itself over the skeletal frame of the servitor. His voice came through the earpiece with human timbre and inflection. ‘That’s better,’ he said, ‘Who’s running you, Clavain?’ ‘Ilia told me a little about your Captain,’ the servitor said. ‘I haven’t seen or heard from him, but I think he must be using me. He switched me on when Ilia was injured, and I was able to help her. But I’m just a beta-level simulation. I have Clavain’s expertise, and Clavain has detailed medical training, but then I imagine the Captain must be able to draw on many other sources for that kind of thing, including his own memories. My only conclusion is that the Captain does not wish to intervene directly, so he has elected to use me as an intermediary. I’m his puppet, more or less.’ Khouri felt an urge to disagree with him, but nothing in Clavain’s manner suggested that he was lying or aware of a more plausible explanation. The Captain had only emerged from his isolation in order to orchestrate his suicide, but now that the attempt had failed, and Ilia had been hurt in the process, he had retreated into some even darker psychosis. She wondered whether that made Clavain the Captain’s puppet or his weapon. ‘What can I trust you to do, in that case?’ Khouri looked from Clavain to Volyova. ‘Could you kill her?’ ‘No.’ He shook his head vigorously. ‘Your ship, or your Captain, wouldn’t allow me to do it. I’m certain of that. And I wouldn’t think of doing it anyway — I’m not a cold-blooded murderer, Ana.’ ‘You’re just software,’ she said. ‘Software’s capable