Beckett gave a wolfish smile. ‘Now that is an exceptionally paranoid thing to say,’ he said. ‘But what do you think the governments of the world are likely to do if they ever find out that top-secret research into the Collodius Project was stolen from the Admiralty? What will they think, I wonder, when it’s revealed that Dan Gari ended up as a leader of the Kang Brotherhood? And Vesh went to Brundisi, the country that started all this in the first place? Sola came to Sundia, which is an enemy of the new global alliance. And let’s not forget your close ties to the Kang Brotherhood, Spinner.’ Beckett smiled. ‘It sounds bad, doesn’t it? Like all the enemies of peace and prosperity are ganging up to make something terrible happen.’
‘It sounds like a delusional fantasy,’ Spinner said.
‘It won’t, though,’ Beckett said. ‘Not when I’m finished telling the story. Once everybody learns that the Sundians, the Brundisans and the pirates are conspiring to rebuild the Collodius Device, they’ll be begging us to protect them.’
Spinner shook his head in dismay. ‘It seems hard to believe we were ever friends,’ he said.
‘The thing I find hard to understand is how you could live through the Flood,’ Beckett said, ‘and all the horrors that came after it, and not want to be sure you’ve got the strength to do something about it.’
‘Bring the Collodius Device back,’ Spinner said urgently, ‘and we could all be there again. And this time, there may not be anything left.’
Beckett’s eyes went dead. ‘I’m sick of talking about this,’ he said. ‘Time to see what all this fuss was about.’
He reached into the inside pocket of his leather jacket and produced another memory chip, of more recent vintage than the one Annalie had brought with her. ‘Sujana and Dan Gari’s work,’ he said, handing it to Sola. ‘Not the only copy, in case you were wondering. Plug it in.’
Sola activated the chip, and with a great swirl, two new galaxies of light joined those of Spinner, Sola and Vesh.
‘Now we’re putting the band back together,’ Beckett said. ‘Let’s open it.’
‘Don’t do this,’ Spinner warned. ‘You’ll regret it. I mean it.’
‘Open it,’ Beckett said.
Sola looked gravely at Spinner; he nodded. Sola took a deep breath and entered the command: decrypt.
Annalie watched in horror as connections began to spark between the lights, making new connections, reordering and reshaping, moving faster and faster; the secrets that had been kept safe for fifteen years were about to be revealed.
‘It’s working,’ Beckett said excitedly.
The five webs kept firing and connecting until they’d aligned themselves into a perfect, five-coloured, glittering globe.
‘Hmm,’ Beckett said, enjoying himself. ‘What shall I open first?’
He reached out to the interface and touched a light at random. For the briefest of moments, the display zoomed into the single light and revealed a directory, a branching list of file names. But then the first file name turned black and began to melt.
‘What did you do?’ Beckett yelled.
‘I warned you not to open it,’ Spinner said.
As they watched, the effect began to spread. Something was happening to the glittering five-coloured globe: a change was spreading across it, breaking the connections; some lights were changing colour, flaming out, turning black, disappearing; others grew huge and distorted and exploded in shimmers of sparks.
‘What’s happening?’ Beckett said.
‘A virus,’ Spinner said. ‘We built it into the encryption. If anyone else tried to bring the research together, it would immediately destroy itself. Permanently.’
‘They were the only copies of our research,’ Sola said. ‘In case you were wondering.’
‘How do you stop it?’ Beckett demanded.
‘It’s too late,’ Spinner said. ‘Once it starts, it can’t be stopped.’
Beckett let out a roar of pure rage and lunged across the control room—not at Spinner, but at Annalie. In moments, he had her up against the wall with a gun at her head once more.
‘Stop it!’ he shouted ‘Or I’ll kill her!’
‘It can’t be stopped!’ Spinner shouted.
‘It’s already gone!’ Sola said. ‘Look!’
The last points of light were going out, leaving only a diseased-looking, crumpled skeleton of broken connections. Beckett looked at it and saw that it was true. ‘Then I’ll kill her anyway,’ he snarled.
Annalie heard the hammer pull back. She felt certain that these were her very last moments. She closed her eyes and squinched away from the cold metal of the gun.
‘Stand down, sir.’
Annalie opened her eyes in surprise. A marine was there, his rifle pointed at Beckett’s head.
‘You stay out of this,’ Beckett snarled.
‘Sir, stand down sir,’ the marine said again.
Annalie felt Beckett’s muscles tighten—she felt a dreadful certainty that he was about to pull the trigger—and then Beckett released her. She staggered away from him.
‘You think you’ve beaten me,’ Beckett snarled, his gun swinging wildly. ‘But no one gets the better of me.’
The gun roared, deafening in the enclosed space. Annalie screamed. But then she realised Beckett had not fired at her. He had fired at Spinner.
And Spinner had collapsed to the floor.
An unexpected ally
Will and Pod crept towards their bunkroom. They had not seen any more marines since the first one, but they knew there must be more.
‘How are we ever going to find the others?’ Pod said. ‘This place is huge and we don’t know where to look.’
‘Essie’ll have her shell,’ Will said. ‘I bet Annalie’s left hers in the bunkroom. We can call her.’
They walked into the bunkroom and saw Blossom, sitting cross-legged on her bunk, hide something under her pillow quick as a flash, then look at them with a smile of angelic innocence. Pod knew she must have been stealing things again but there was no time to take her up on it.
‘There are marines in the Ark,’ Pod said. ‘We need to find the others and get out of here.’
Blossom’s eyes widened and she quickly began gathering up her things.
Graham had
