Buddy glanced at him as if he was ready to speak in his stead. But Kendrick wanted to explain for himself.
'I've been looking for proof that will link Draeger, absolutely and incontrovertibly, to the Labrat experiments.'
'And you found such proof? Down there?'
Kendrick rubbed at his face. 'Not exactly. I… what I found down there tells me that the proof exists on the Archimedes. I don't really want to go into the details now, but I needed to go to the Maze in order to learn where to look for that information once I get up there.'
Sabak shot Buddy a look that bordered on the incredulous. 'What makes you think that any such information would even be up there?'
'Look, neither Max Draeger nor anyone else can access, not even remotely, any records of his activities, physical or otherwise, that still exist on the Archimedes, and I have information that suggests they do still exist. If I can find real evidence against him it would finally bring him down. Completely.'
'So you're going to track down this stuff, then join us when we go with the Bright?'
'I'm not sure about that part, no.'
Sabak's expression became stony. 'I know about you. I remember all the work you did during the Trials. All the shit you dug up. I was impressed. There are one or two people think you're a hero for that. You were in Ward Seventeen, though, so haven't you been seeing the same things as the rest of us?'
'I did see something,' Kendrick admitted. 'But not necessarily the same thing that the rest of you apparently experienced. Not enough to convince me personally of what you and the rest of them believe.'
'I guess not,' Sabak replied after an uncomfortable pause. 'Otherwise you'd know already.'
He leant forward, his voice lowering as if inviting Kendrick into a conspiracy. 'Are you aware that there are only just over a hundred of us left from Ward Seventeen?'
Kendrick went numb with shock. 'A hundred?' He felt his skin flush. 'I didn't realize-'
'There were considerably more who escaped the Maze, yes. But it's been a while since then. The ones who didn't survive – well, not many of them died through anything you'd call natural causes. Whether or not you feel we're right in this venture, just remember, Kendrick, there's nowhere else now for any of them to go-'
Caroline's eyes glittered, and for one terrible moment Kendrick thought that she might turn and look at him. Instead she stared, unseeing, at the ceiling of the containment unit. Her clothes had been replaced by a blue paper smock that reminded him with a chill of the clothes they had been forced to wear in the Maze. A woman stood at a respectful distance behind him, lips pursed in the centre of a round face. A tag on her jacket identified her as Doctor Maria Numark.
Something had distorted Caroline's skull. The bone around her right ear appeared to be puffed out, thick, rigid lines contorting the flesh there. Her lips were parted slightly, as if she had been about to speak before she died.
Nothing. Kendrick could feel nothing. It was as if his emotions had been sucked out of him, leaving only a shell of semi-organic augmentation that had mistaken itself for a human being.
'I'd like to see her, for real.' He turned to Doctor Numark. 'Let me in there.'
Maria Numark shook her head and gestured at the elaborate precautions set up around where Caroline lay on the other side of the glass. Kendrick wondered if eyebrows had been raised among the non-Labrat crew when Sabak and his colleagues had installed a secure biological containment room. 'I'm afraid that's impossible.'
Kendrick licked his lips. 'When?' he asked. 'I mean, when did she…' He gestured towards Caroline.
'Just before you arrived on board. We did everything we could.' He could see where some of the augments had broken through her flesh, vague shapes that pushed up her paper smock here and there. He looked away, sickened, then stepped back.
'We'll need to arrange for a funeral service,' he mumbled.
The doctor glanced at a wall clock. 'To be honest, I'm not sure there's time for that, Mr Gallmon. I'm sorry.'
'She looked as though she was getting better the last time I saw her.'
Doctor Numark nodded sympathetically. 'According to the literature, that's often the case. Outward appearances, however, when it comes to this kind of thing, can be extremely deceptive.' She stepped forward. 'Perhaps… I could leave you alone out here for a few minutes, if you wish.'
Kendrick pressed his forehead against the glass, feeling numbing waves of exhaustion wash over him. Did he imagine those faint flecks of light where her hands touched the metal pallet on which she lay? As if something metallic extended downwards, from her fingertips. Something threadlike.
He heard Maria Numark step up behind him, gently placing fingers on his arm. He began to turn and almost lost his balance. He reached out and caught himself on the edge of a table.
'You need some rest now,' the doctor told him, her voice firm. 'You'll do yourself an injury if you don't get some sleep.'
'No-'
'Rest.'
Kendrick dreamed.
He opened his eyes. He was back on the Archimedes.
A great silver cloud filled the air far above his head. Moments later it broke up into a rippling mist of winged shapes that spiralled down towards him.
The last thing he remembered was Buddy helping him to a spare cabin after being called to the surgery by Doctor Numark. Buddy had looked ashen-faced, having only just found out himself about Caroline's death. If Buddy had said anything of consequence to him, he didn't remember it.
Kendrick had put his head down on the pillow, his mind and emotions still full of the memory of Caroline lying still and lifeless, and now he was here again.
Like he'd always been here, waiting.
The creatures came closer, flitting through the turgid air, their tiny faces ugly and distorted. No wonder it had taken him so long to recognize their origin.
'Robert,' Kendrick said at last as a thousand winged shapes hovered in the air around him.
One of them spoke, its voice clear and full, unexpected from something so small.
'You shouldn't be here,' the tiny Robert-homunculus said. 'We don't want you here.'
'I'm coming anyway,' said Kendrick. 'I'm bringing Peter McCowan with me.'
The creature's companions beat chaotic patterns in the air as Kendrick spoke.
'Peter told me you wouldn't let him get free from the Maze,' he continued. 'You kept him down there, blind and deaf.'
The rapid motion of the tiny creatures became even more frenzied as they swirled and dived with renewed vigour. He thought again of shoals of fish darting through deep ocean waters.
'Peter is an abomination,' squealed the same creature as before, hovering momentarily in front of Kendrick's face. 'You must not bring him here!'
'I need to find something that's on board the Archimedes. I can-'
'You must not bring him here! You must not bring him here!' another of the creatures buzzed angrily – or was it the same one? It was impossible to tell as they darted around him. 'I can see him hiding inside you!'
Kendrick's mouth felt dry. What did Buddy or Sabak or any of them see and hear in their visions, to think that this thing was sane?
The creatures all around reminded him of nothing so much as locusts preparing to swarm. He ducked and shielded his face as they buzzed around him in uncountable legions. Their sheer weight of numbers forced him to kneel on the ground, shielding himself with his arms. He spoke again, raising his voice to a yell. 'It's you that the Bright use to communicate with us, right? You were the first. You became a part of them. Something went
