‘You had me going for a minute there, Clavain. I was almost starting to think you might be someone I could do business with.’ She smiled, as if it was the last time she would ever smile in her life. I was wrong, wasn’t I?‘ ‘I’m not a bad man, Ilia. I’m just somone who knows exactly what needs to be done.’ ‘Like you said, always the most dangerous sort.’ ‘Please don’t underestimate me. I will take those weapons.’ ‘You’re weeks away, Clavain. By the time you arrive, I’ll be more than ready for you.’ Clavain’s figure said nothing. Khouri had no idea what to read into that lack of response, but it troubled her greatly. Her ship towered over her, barely contained by its prison of repair scaffolding. Storm Bird’s internal lights were on, and in the upper row of flight deck windows Antoinette saw Xavier’s silhouetted form hard at work. He had a compad in one hand and a stylus gripped between his teeth, and he was flicking ancient toggle switches above his head, taking typically diligent notes. Always the bookkeeper , she thought. Antoinette eased her exoskeleton into a standing position. Now and then Clavain allowed the crew a few hours under conditions of normal gravity and inertia, but this was not one of those periods. The exoskeleton gave her dozens of permanent sores where the support pads and haptic motion sensors touched her skin. In a perverse way, she was almost looking forward to arriving around Delta Pavonis, since they would then be able to discard the skeletons. She took a good long look at Storm Bird . She had not seen it since the time she had walked away, refusing to enter what no longer felt like her own territory. It felt like months ago, and some of the anger — though not all of it — had abated. She was still pretty pissed off. Her ship was certainly ready for the fight. To the untrained eye, there had been no drastic alteration in Storm Bird’s external appearance. The extra weapons that had been grafted on, in addition to the deterrents already present, merely amounted to a few more bulges, spines and asymmetries to add to those that were already present. With the manufactories churning out armaments by the tonne, it had been an easy enough matter to divert some of that output her way, and Scorpio had been perfectly willing to turn a blind eye. Remontoire and Xavier had even worked together to couple the more exotic weapons into Storm Bird’s control net. For a time, she had wondered why she felt the urge to fight. She did not consider herself given to violence or heroic gestures. Pointless, stupid gestures — such as burying her father in a gas giant — were another thing entirely. She climbed up through the ship until she reached the flight deck. Xavier carried on working after she had entered. He was too engrossed in what he was doing, and he must have become used to her never visiting Storm Bird . She sat in the seat next to him, waiting for him to notice her and look up from his work. When he did he just nodded, giving her the space and time to say what she needed to. She appreciated that. ‘Beast?’ Antoinette said quietly. The pause before Lyle Merrick replied was probably no longer than usual, but it felt like an eternity. ‘Yes, Antoinette?’ ‘I’m back.’ ‘Yes… I gathered.’ There was another long intermission. ‘I’m pleased that you’ve returned.’ The voice had the same tonal quality as ever, but something had changed. She supposed that Lyle was no longer obliged to mimic the old subpersona, the one that he had replaced sixteen years before. ‘Why?’ she asked sharply. ‘Did you miss me?’ ‘Yes,’ Merrick said. ‘Yes, I did.’ I don’t think I can ever forgive you, Lyle.‘ ‘I wouldn’t ever want or expect your forgiveness, Antoinette. I certainly wouldn’t deserve it.’ ‘No, you wouldn’t.’ ‘But you understand that I made a promise to your father?’ ‘That’s what Xavier said.’ ‘Your father was a good man, Antoinette. He only wanted the best for you.’ ‘The best for you as well, Lyle.’ ‘I’m in his debt. I wouldn’t argue with that.’ ‘How do you live with what you did?’ There was something that might have been a laugh, or even a self-deprecating snigger. ‘The part of me that mattered the most isn’t greatly troubled by that question, you know. The flesh-and-blood me was executed. I’m just a shadow, the only shadow that the eraserheads missed.’ ‘A shadow with a highly evolved sense of self- preservation.’ ‘Again, that’s nothing I’d deny.’ I want to hate you, Lyle.‘ ‘Go ahead,’ he said. ‘Millions already do.’ She sighed. ‘But I can’t afford to. This is still my ship. You are still running it whether I like it or not. True, Lyle?’ I was already a pilot, Little… I mean Antoinette. I already had an intimate knowledge of spacecraft operations before my small mishap. It hasn’t been difficult for me to integrate myself with Storm Bird . I doubt that a real subpersona would ever prove an adequate replacement.‘ She sneered. ‘Oh, don’t worry. I’m not going to replace you.’ ‘You’re not?’ ‘No,’ she said. ‘But my reasons are pragmatic. I can’t afford to, not without seriously fucking up my ship’s performance. I don’t want to go through the learning curve of integrating a new gamma-level, especially not now.’ ‘That’s reason enough for me.’ ‘I’m not finished. My father made a deal with you. That means you made a deal with the Bax family. I can’t renege on that, even if I wanted to. It wouldn’t be good for business.’ ‘We’re a little far from any business opportunities now, Antoinette.’ ‘Well, maybe. But there’s one other thing. Are you listening?’ ‘Of course.’ ‘We’re going into battle. You’re going to help me. And by that I mean you’re going to fly this ship and make it do whatever the fuck I ask of it. Understood? I mean
