getting tired. And I knew it wouldn't be long before we stumbled into memories of Fayde Thuring and the last hours. 4Ve should stop. We-'
I was cut off by the sudden shrilling of my communicator. I cursed loudly. Kircher had been told: no interruptions.
The sound shattered the seance at once. The blue light flashed and vanished, and the room returned to normal with a sudden lurch that blew out the candles and cast us painfully out of the warp. Vance slumped forward, breathing hard, in distress. My head ached with a sudden piercing pain. Medea pulled the jacket towards her across the table and buried her head into its silk folds, sobbing. The walls were sweating.
Damn Kircher. Seances shouldn't be broken like that. Any one of us could have been badly damaged by the abrupt termination. As it was, we were all emotionally dazed.
I got up. 'Stay here/ I said to them both. Take a moment to recover.' Vance nodded feebly. Medea was lost in her own storm of feelings.
I went outside and pulled the door closed, breathing hard. Yanking the little hand vox from my pocket, I keyed the 'respond' rune.
'This had better be good, Jubal/ I said hoarsely.
Static crackled back.
'Jubal? Jubal? This is Eisenhorn.'
Nothing. Then a quick blurt of frantic words I couldn't make out. Then static again.
'Jubal?'
From somewhere distant, on the other side of the house, I heard a trio of muffled cracks.
Las-fire.
I snatched up Midas's needle pistol from the shelf where Medea had left it and ran for the library door.
EIGHT
The fall ofspaeton house.
For ourlives.
Sastre, loyal Sastre.
The halls of the house were quiet, with the lights dimmed, but I could smell burning. I hurried down a carpeted crosswalk, arming the needle pistol. Thirty rounds and a fully charged cell. 1 had no reload.
Tiny red lights were winking on the security monitor dials recessed into the walls at regular intervals. I went to the nearest one, opened the cover and was about to press my signet ring into the reader when I heard movement.
I raised the gun.
Two maids and a houseman ran into view and yelped when they saw me.
'Steady steady!' I cried out, lowering the gun. This way, come on!'
They ran up to me and cowered behind some ornamental plant stands.
'What's going on?'
They were too scared to answer at first. I saw that the youngest of them was the new girl, Litu. She looked up at me with terrified, tear-pink eyes.
'Litu? What's going on?'
'Raiders/ she said, her voice breathy with panic, 'Raiders, sir. Just minutes ago, there was suddenly this great big bang from upstairs, and then shooting. Men running around, with guns. I saw a man dead. I think it was Urben. I think/
Rocef Urben. One of my security detail.
'He had all blood coming out of his face/ she stammered.
The raiders, Litu. From which direction?'
'From the west, sir,' said the houseman, Colyon. 'From the main gate, I think. I heard Master Kircher say they were coming from the stable block too.'
'You saw Kircher?'
'It was a bit mad, sir. I heard him as he ran past/
I looked around. The smell of burning was getting stronger and I could hear more shots.
'Colyon,' I said, 'do you have your house keys?'
'I'm never without them, sir/ he said.
'Good man. Go along here to the east porch and then get yourself and these women into the gardens. Head for the orchards. Hide. Got a comm?'
'Yes, sir/
'If you don't hear from me in the next twenty minutes, try and get all three of you off the property. Look after them, Colyon/
'I will, sir/
They ran off. I fitted my ring into the monitor and authorised access. The little wall unit lit the air with a small diagnostic hologram. Incredibly, it stated that all security systems, all detectors, all perimeter shields, were shut down. They'd been shut down at source, using an authorised command code.
How in the name of hell?
'Jubal?' I tried the vox again. 'Anybody? This is Eisenhorn. Respond/
The hand vox answered this time. A man's voice, hard like stone. 'Eisenhorn. You are dead, Eisenhorn/
I went down through the staff quarters. It seemed like everyone had fled. Doors were open and a few chairs were overturned. Half drunk cups of caffeine, still steaming. A half-finished game of regicide in the butler's pantry. A pict-unit still playing a live broadcast from the arena at Dorsay. A fallen lho-stick burning a patch in the carpet.
I stamped out the embers.
Through a door into the west landing I found Urben. He was dead all right. He was sprawled with his back arched in the doorway. Laser fire had blasted him open.
I was bent over him when I heard footsteps.
Three men came in through the other side of the landing, but I only saw two of them. They were moving fast, with the fluid confidence of trained killers. They were wearing combat armour made of rubberised mesh, their faces hidden behind grotesque papier-mache masks, the kind you can buy in Dorsay's market for the carnivals. They had cut-down las-rifles.
They fired as soon as they saw me, their shots striking the doorframe. 1 barely had time to dive into cover. I heard the pip and chatter of their microbead communicators.
One, sporting a gilded carnodon mask, moved in, running low, as another in a mermaid mask gave cover.
From the doorway, I fired the needle pistol twice and put two tiny holes through the carnodon leer. The raider folded up and crashed to the floor, his knees buckling under him.
The mermaid fired again, repeatedly, and I switched to the other side of the doorway.
Someone had prepared.
I crouched and fired up at the chandelier. When it came crashing down, the mermaid dived to the side and I caught him squarely with three needles, any of which would have been a kill shot. The mermaid thumped backwards heavily and brought a console table over as he fell.
I moved through the door, not realising the third one was there. His shots grazed my shoulder and knocked me down hard.
