Consider Phlebas

searching properly without some sort of detection device. A mass anomaly sensor is the only one that'll work, and they can't have one. We have two. That's why we have to go in.'

'And fight,' Dorolow said.

'Probably not. They've taken communicators; I'll get in touch with them and explain who I am. Naturally I can't tell you the details, but I know enough about the Idiran military system, about their ships, even some of their personnel, to be able to convince them I am who I say I am. They won't know me personally, but they were told a Changer would be sent later.'

'Liar,' Balveda said. Her voice was cold. Horza felt the atmosphere in the mess change, become tense. The Culture woman was looking at him, her features set, determined, even resigned.

'Balveda,' he said softly, 'I don't know what you were told, but I was briefed on The Hand of God, and Xoralundra told me the Idiran ground force in the chuy-hirtsi knew I'd been sent for.' He said it calmly. 'OK?'

'That wasn't what I heard,' Balveda said, but he sensed she was not totally sure of herself. She had risked a lot to say that, probably hoping that he would at least threaten her or do something which would turn the others against him. It hadn't worked.

Horza shrugged. 'I can't help it if the Special Circumstances section can't brief you accurately, Perosteck,' he said, smiling thinly. The Culture agent's eyes looked away from the Changer's face, at the table, then at each of the other people sitting around it, as though testing them to see who they each believed. 'Look,' Horza said in his most honest-sounding and reasonable voice, spreading his hands out, 'I don't want to die for the Idirans, and God knows why, but I have come to like you lot. I wouldn't take you in there on a suicide mission. We'll be all right. If the worst comes to the worst we can always pull out. We'll take the CAT back through the Quiet Barrier and head for somewhere neutral. You can have the ship; I'll have a captured Culture agent.' He looked at Balveda, who was sitting in her seat with her legs crossed, her arms folded and her head down. 'But I don't think it'll come to that. I think we'll catch this glorified computer and be well rewarded for it.'

'What if the Culture's won the battle outside the Barrier and they're waiting for us when we come out, with or without the Mind?' Yalson asked. She didn't sound hostile, just interested. She was the only one he felt he could rely on, though he thought Wubslin would follow, too. Horza nodded.

'That's unlikely. I can't see the Culture falling back all over this volume but holding out here; but even if they did they'd have to be very lucky indeed to catch us. They can only see into the Barrier in real space, don't forget, so they'd have no warning of where we'd be coming out. No problem there.'

Yalson sat back, apparently convinced. Horza knew he looked calm, but inside he was tensed up, waiting for the mood of the rest to make itself clear. His last answer had been truthful, but the rest were either not the whole truth, or lies.

He had to convince them. He had to have them on his side. There was no other way he could carry out his mission, and he had come too far, done too much, killed too many people, sunk too much of his own purpose and determination into the task, to back out now. He had to track the Mind down, he had to go down into the Command System, Idirans or no Idirans, and he had to have the rest of what had been Kraiklyn's Free Company with him. He looked at them: at Yalson, severe and impatient, wanting the talking to stop and the job just to be got on with, her shadow of hair making her look both very young, almost child-like, and hard at the same time; Dorolow, her eyes uncertain, looking at the others, scratching one of her convoluted ears nervously; Wubslin, slumped comfortably in his seat, compressed, his stocky frame radiating relaxation. Wubslin's face had shown signs of interest when Horza described the Command System, and the Changer guessed the engineer found the whole idea of this gigantic train-set fascinating.

Aviger looked very dubious about the whole venture, but Horza thought that now he had made it clear nobody was going to be allowed to stay on the ship, the old man would accept this rather than go to the trouble of arguing about it. Neisin he wasn't sure about. He had been drinking as much as ever, been quieter than Horza remembered him, but while he didn't like being bossed around and told what he could and couldn't do, he was obviously fed up being stuck on the Clear Air Turbulence, and had already been out for a walk in the snow while Wubslin and Horza were looking at the medjel suit. Boredom would make him follow, if nothing else.

Horza wasn't worried about the machine Unaha-Closp; it would do as it was told, like machines always did. Only the Culture let them get so fancy they really did seem to have wills of their own.

As for Perosteck Balveda, she was his prisoner; it was as simple as that.

'Easy in, easy out…' Yalson said. She smiled, shrugged and, looking round at the others, said, 'What the fuck; it's something to do, isn't it?'

Nobody disagreed.

Horza was reprogramming the CAT's fidelities once more, entering the computer's new instructions through a worn but still serviceable touchboard, when Yalson came onto the flight deck. She slipped into the co-pilot's seat and watched the man as he worked; the touch-board's illuminated display threw the shadows of Marain characters over his face.

After a while she said, looking at the markings on the illuminated board, 'Marain, eh?'

Horza shrugged. 'It's the only accurate language I and this antique share.' He tapped some more instructions in. 'Hey.' He turned to her. 'You shouldn't be in here when I'm doing this.' He smiled, to show her he wasn't serious.

'Don't you trust me?' Yalson said, smiling back.

'You're the only one I do,' Horza said, turning to the board again. 'It doesn't matter anyway, for these instructions.'

Yalson watched him for a little longer. 'Did she mean a lot to you, Horza?'

He didn't look up, but his hands paused over the touchboard. He stared at the illuminated characters.

'Who?'

'Horza…' Yalson said, gently.

He still didn't look at her. 'We were friends,' he said, as though talking to the touchboard.

'Yeah, well,' she said, after a pause, 'I suppose it must be pretty hard anyway, when it's your own people…'

Horza nodded, still not looking up.

Yalson studied him for a little longer. 'Did you love her?'

He didn't reply immediately; his eyes seemed to inspect each of the precise, compact shapes in front of him, as though one of them concealed the answer. He shrugged. 'Maybe,' he said, 'once.' He cleared his throat, looked briefly round at Yalson, then leant back to the touchboard. 'That was a long time ago.'

Yalson got up then, as he went back to his task, and put her hands on his shoulders. 'I'm sorry, Horza.' He nodded again, and placed one hand over hers. 'We'll get them,' she said. 'If that's what you want. You and-'

He shook his head, looked round at her. 'No. We go for the Mind, that's all. If the Idirans do get in the way, I won't care, but… no, there's no point in risking more than we have to. Thanks, though.'

She nodded slowly. 'That's all right.' She bent, kissed him briefly, then went out. The man gazed at the closed door for a few moments, then turned back to the board full of alien symbols.

He programmed the ship's computer to fire warning, then lethal laser shots at anybody or anything approaching it unless they could be identified by the distinctive electromagnetic emission signature of their suit as one of the Free Company. In addition, it required Horza's — Kraiklyn's — identity ring to make the CAT's elevator work and, once on board, to take control of the ship itself. Horza felt safe enough doing this; only the ring would let them take over the ship, and he was confident nobody could take that from him, not without a greater risk to themselves than even a squad of mean and hungry Idirans could provide.

But it was possible that he might be killed, and the others might survive. Especially for Yalson, he wanted them to have some sort of escape route that didn't depend totally on him.

They took down some of the plastic boarding in the Changer base so that if they did find the Mind they would be able to get it through. Dorolow wanted to bury the dead Changers, but Horza refused. He carried each of them