A Night Without Stars

  ‘It is looking like the arrival of the Commonwealth woman has forced the Faller nests to respond in such an extreme fashion,’ Stonal said. ‘That may be to our advantage.’

  ‘How so?’ Terese asked in surprise.

  ‘Turn over any large rock, madam prime minister, and you will see unpleasant insects scurrying out of the light. Paula and the Warrior Angel have turned over a very large rock indeed. We have seen that the Faller nests are more widespread than even the PSR had knowledge of. They clearly have excellent contingency plans to raid our atomic facilities, so no doubt there are other plans drawn up to sabotage essential facilities and transport. Pilot Major Em Yulei’s reports of Lukarticar confirmed that Faller variants are dominant off Lamaran. The Faller Apocalypse is a very real threat. They were caught off guard by Paula’s arrival, and over-reacted; but in doing so they showed us their hand. They are massing out there, but now we are warned. We have been shown what to expect. That gives us a chance to prepare.’

  ‘You mean Operation Reclaim?’

  ‘No, madam prime minister. Not in isolation. We have already enacted travel restrictions in case they tried to bring the stolen bombs into Varlan and our other cities. People know something is badly wrong. They need clear leadership at this time; they need to be given a purpose. I would suggest this is the time for a full-scale response on our part. Go on the offensive before the Fallers have the chance to launch their assault on us.’

  ‘You want me to declare martial law?’

  ‘At the very minimum. Martial law, curfew for the cities and larger towns, put every regiment on full alert. Draft every reservist. We outnumber them, and this way we will be armed when they come. Use every rumour the PSR has and search out those nests. Send the Air Force to bomb Tothland and the Fire Archipelago and any other landmass our planes can reach. Once we start to burn them out, they will have no alternative but to begin their campaign. They will be exposed, and we can exterminate them.’

  *

  Jenifa and Chaing got back to the safe house just before midnight. It had been yet another long fruitless day spent going through the items forensics had recovered from the various sites across Port Chana which the nest had used. After all this time they really should have uncovered some leads, some connection to other nests. The Fallers had been very thorough covering their outside traces. ‘Maybe it was a new kind of nest,’ she suggested as Chaing checked the safeguards outside, making sure no one had entered the house while they were away. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Not a nest as we know them, like a family of Fallers, but more like one of our assault squads. They came together to do this one thing. So we’re looking for patterns and evidence which don’t exist.’

  ‘They’ve never done that before,’ Chaing said with a frown.

  ‘But they’ve never needed to steal nukes and hunt a Commonwealth citizen before.’

  ‘Good point. So what should we be looking for?’

  ‘I’m not sure. I need to think about it.’

  ‘Okay, we’ll take a fresh look in the morning.’

  While he disappeared into the kitchen to find himself a beer, she went up to the bedroom. As she took her uniform off, she checked the bruising down her right side where the collapsing masonry in the lighthouse had struck her. They were still sore to touch, but the big brown and purple discolorations were starting to fade – thank Giu.

  Jenifa stepped into the shower and let the warm jet play over her. The liquid soap was scented with lime and jasmine, helping to relax her further. She rubbed it everywhere and took a long time letting the water sluice it off, enjoying the refreshing tingle it left. Towelling down afterwards, she was undecided if she should spend the rest of the evening poring over yet more files and notes with Chaing. It had been a long frustrating day, and tomorrow promised to be no better. If she could just figure out one angle to connect the Fallers they knew about to those they didn’t . . . Perhaps a change in routine would help kick her out of the rut. What she really wanted was time for a proper physical workout; since they’d arrived in Port Chana she’d barely managed half an hour of exercise a day. Her strength must be maintained at all times – and especially now.

  She wrapped the towel around her waist and went back into the bedroom. Stopped. Frowned. Something was wrong; she knew it instinctively. Crudding Eliters creeping up on me again! Her gaze tracked round trying to identify the anomaly, and she moved closer to the bed where her pistol and holster lay underneath her uniform jacket. Reached for it and stopped her hand in mid-air.

  The jacket! Someone had moved the jacket.

  Footsteps on the landing outside. That was Chaing; she could tell from the uneven steps caused by his bad leg.

  He came in as she finally plucked the jacket off the bed. The pistol was there in its holster undisturbed, but the weight of the jacket was wrong, lighter than it should be. ‘Chaing, did you check those safeguards properly?’

  ‘Yes. They were all good.’

  She started to feel in the jacket’s pocket.

  ‘Is this what you’re looking for?’ he asked with casual mockery.

  Jenifa spun round and drew in a shocked breath. He was holding the link detector Yaki had sent. An incriminating jade-green light shone on the top of the small box.

  ‘I kept wondering what it was you were always sneaking a look at,’ he said. ‘Then I remembered, when we were in the lighthouse, just before all Uracus broke loose: you asked me what side I was on. At the time I thought it was heat of the moment, that you were pissed off that I’d left you to go on the Gothora by yourself. But it bugged me.’

  ‘So whose side are you on?’ she challenged.

  ‘There are two sides, there are humans and there are Fallers.’ He dropped the link detector on the bed and took out the standard PSR-issue blood-test kit. When he jabbed the ball of his thumb with its needle a drop of scarlet blood welled up. ‘Does that answer your question?’

  Jenifa clenched her jaw muscles and gave him a sharp nod of confirmation.

  ‘Liar,’ Chaing said. ‘If it was a binary choice, why have you got a link detector? And I’m also quite interested in how you got hold of Section Seven technology. Are you Stonal’s spy?’

  ‘No.’

  He picked up the detector again, gazing at it curiously, almost ignoring her. ‘There’s only one reason to have one of these: to find an Eliter. So if you have one which you’re constantly checking around me, what does that mean?’

  She stared at him, her face impassive. He’s worked it out. Crud! So how do I mitigate this?

  ‘You think I’m an Eliter, don’t you?’ Chaing asked.

  ‘The Warrior Angel turned up at Xander Manor. How did she know where you were?’

  ‘You were with me most of that night, you know the commotion we were making. She must have followed me.’

  ‘And Hawley Docks? She was there again. Coincidence?’

  ‘You are joking? The whole of Opole knew we were fighting a nest that day. No,’ he shook the detector at her. ‘You’ve only had this since we got here. And this . . . this is an act of desperation. What made you think I’m an Eliter?’

  ‘You abandoned me,’ Jenifa snarled at him. ‘You were supposed to be guarding me when I went on board the Gothora III. You were with her, in her bed most likely, in her knickers.’

  ‘Games and more games,’ he said in a disappointed tone. ‘You know I was ordered to contact the Warrior Angel by Stonal himself. That is why we brought Corilla with us, for her to open a route into the Eliter radicals. And you had this detector before you knew I’d met the Warrior Angel here. That’s not why you suspect me of treachery. Tell me what it is.’

  She knew she was going to have to give him something, a fact he couldn’t question. She forced herself to sigh, to show defeat, weakness. ‘Castillito told me. She admitted you are one of them.’

  ‘Castillito? When?’

  ‘The day I discovered the Gothora’s dodgy paperwork. She contacted me in the Ankatra Cafe a
fter Corilla made her drop.’

  ‘So Corilla knows Castillito?’

  ‘Must do,’ Jenifa said. As a cover story, the cafe worked; he wouldn’t think to probe deeper. Not that there was any way she was ever going to explain why she was eager to prove he was an Eliter, how he was just an insignificant pawn in her mother’s altogether grander game. No hint of that must ever be revealed. Stonal would move swiftly if he ever suspected. This was going to have to be played very carefully. The thought was darkly thrilling.

  ‘What did she say?’ Chaing asked.

  ‘Just that you were an Eliter.’

  ‘That’s it?’ he asked with a frown. ‘I still don’t believe you. Consider this: if I was an Eliter, she wouldn’t betray me.’

  ‘Wrong. There’s one thing that would override all the Eliter solidarity in the world.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Florian. You were hunting her son. Her betrayal was extremely personal.’

  ‘She wanted revenge,’ he muttered. ‘So she came up with the fantasy of me being an Eliter.’

  ‘The Warrior Angel rescued you at Xander Manor, and there she was at the docks to rescue Florian and Paula.’

  He nodded reluctantly. ‘Clever. She rearranged the facts to fit her own agenda.’

  ‘How did the Warrior Angel find out about the nest at the manor?’

  ‘How did the Eliters know the stolen atom bombs had arrived in Port Chana?’ he retorted. ‘How did Corilla phone us on a PSR secure line?’

  She forced her body to relax, like he’d dealt some kind of blow.

  ‘No answer?’ he taunted.

  She walked round the bed to stand directly in front of him, almost touching. When she studied him he seemed so confident, so right. Is that a front? Is he playing a game as deep as mine? She genuinely couldn’t tell. And for once he was completely unresponsive to her naked body being so close, so available. ‘I don’t know,’ she said.

  ‘Then tell me, who did the link detector come from? Only Section Seven personnel are authorized to use them.’

  ‘I had it sent from Opole.’

  ‘Nicely unanswered, Jenifa. Who in Opole?’

  ‘Rujik. He’s a friend on the third floor, in charge of technical stores. He has access to all sorts of top-security devices.’

  ‘If the red light had come on, who were you going to call?’

  ‘Director Yaki.’

  He shook his head minutely. ‘I don’t think that was the truth. See? That’s what happens when people start lying to each other. There is always that tiny sliver of uncertainty between them after that.’

  She almost laughed; her one true answer and he didn’t believe it. ‘Oh, but that part is very true. I would have taken you into custody myself. And I wouldn’t have used intimidation to get the truth out of you.’

  ‘Yeah, that I do believe.’

  She slid a hand down her abdomen, and pushed the towel off her hips. Her lips tweaked into a smile. ‘So where do we go from here?’

  He took her hand, and smiled. She stood on tiptoes to kiss him. The link detector was slapped into her open palm.

  ‘Well, I can tell you where we don’t go,’ he said cheerfully.

  ‘To Uracus with you,’ she growled.

  The phone let out a two-tone whistle. Chaing gave it an irritated glance and picked it up. The small blue light came on at the base.

  Like that proves it’s secure, Jenifa thought.

  ‘Chaing?’ Stonal asked.

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  ‘Are you busy?’

  ‘Nothing important, sir.’

  Jenifa gave him a scornful look and picked up the towel, wrapping it back round her hips.

  ‘Good,’ Stonal said. ‘You will be issued your official notification tomorrow morning, but martial law will be declared midnight tonight, Varlan time.’

  ‘Is it that bad?’

  ‘Frankly, yes. They’re getting ready to annihilate us, but this way we can take the fight to them. The regiments are to be mobilized, and all the reserves called in.’

  ‘I see. What do you want me to do, sir?’

  ‘Have you had any contact with the Port Chana Eliters?’

  ‘Just through Corilla, and that’s not produced anything. I’m still working on backtracking the nest that was spying on the Gothora III. Hopefully that will lead us to other nests.’

  ‘Go back to Corilla, insist the Warrior Angel gets in touch with us at once.’

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  ‘We need to know what options we have. This is top secret, but we believe the Fallers might have killed her.’

  Jenifa couldn’t avoid the shock that statement caused. She saw Chaing’s face was troubled, too.

  ‘How, sir?’

  ‘The Sziu followed the Gothora to Lukarticar. Their bombs were detonated. We were in contact with one of her group, but we haven’t heard from him since. We need to know if she survived, Chaing.’

  ‘I understand.’

  ‘Good man. There’s something else you should know. The cabinet had a vote of confidence; Terese is now prime minister.’

  ‘I see.’

  ‘Do you? It means that Operation Reclaim is now relegated to a last resort. We will resist the apocalypse with all the vigour we can manage. That wouldn’t have happened under Adolphus.’

  ‘You can count on me, sir.’

  ‘Good man, captain.’

  The blue light went off and Chaing replaced the handset.

  ‘Now what?’ Jenifa asked.

  ‘Now I follow orders and get Corilla to ask her friends to contact the Warrior Angel. It’s what loyal PSR officers do.’

  ‘And me?’

  He smiled thinly. ‘Do you still think I’m an Eliter? Actually, it doesn’t matter what you think. I can’t trust you any more.’

  ‘Don’t take this away from me. I couldn’t ignore Castillito – that would be weak.’

  ‘The trouble is that the PSR does a fantastic job. We track down Fallers and eliminate them. We put our lives on the line to protect this planet, and when we fail we die in the most horrific way imaginable, like poor Lurvri. But we do it anyway, every lethal, awful moment in the field, every boring decade behind a desk, because without us the Fallers would win. That cannot happen.’

  ‘I understand that. I know what has to be done. I will never fail to do my duty.’

  ‘But your duty is not my duty. You are not my PSR. Radical monitoring division is not the PSR, you’re just Democratic Unity thugs suppressing dissent, and using the PSR’s name to do it.’

  ‘To protect us from the threat in the sky, and from those who betray us from within,’ she said. ‘That was the oath we all took. If the centre cannot be strong, we will all Fall. I will not Fall.’

  ‘I’m sure you won’t.’ He turned and walked towards the door.

  ‘Where are you going?’

  ‘I told you, to speak with Corilla. If you’re still here when I get back, then it’s because you accept I’m not an Eliter.’

  Jenifa got dressed slowly, listening to Chaing limping his way downstairs. The front door slamming shut. She’d never been so humiliated; he’d worked out what she was doing, then rejected her sexually.

  ‘Fucking Uracus!’ She slammed her fist into the wall.

  The pain was good. The pain was pure. I am stronger than this. He will not defeat me, he will not use his clever words to outsmart me. I know he is an Eliter. I will expose him to the whole world.

  She sat on the bed and dialled the number, then dialled the security code. The blue light came on.

  ‘Hello, Jenifa,’ Yaki said.

  ‘Director,’ Jenifa answered sharply.

  ‘How’s it going?’

  ‘Not good. Chaing found the link detector.’

  ‘That was careless of you. But it doesn’t matter now.’

  ‘How can you say that?’

  ‘Adolphus is under house arrest. I’ve been quietly told it was Stonal who engineered that. And now the new prime minis
ter has signed a state of emergency, he’s more powerful than ever. So this particular game is suspended.’

  ‘You can’t mean that. I’m sure Chaing is one of them. He knew what I was looking for.’

  ‘It’s over. Chaing doesn’t matter; neither does Stonal really. Our orders are coming in. The government is mobilizing everything we’ve got. Byarn is receiving its allocated Regiment personnel, so it’s ready for the government if the time comes. You know what that means, don’t you?’

  ‘They can’t just give up. You can’t give up.’

  ‘We need to be practical here, Jenifa.’

  ‘The things I’ve done for you . . . The things you made me do! All of it, so you could revitalize the PSR.’ Tears were flowing freely down her cheeks.

  ‘You did everything I asked because you are strong. I’m proud of that. I couldn’t trust anyone else. Just you, my dear. It was all for you. But that life is over now.’

  ‘No!’

  ‘I have a travel warrant for Byarn. It will be with you by lunch-time.’

  ‘Are you coming?’ Jenifa asked dolefully.

  ‘I hope so. One way or another, I’m not facing breeders again.’

  ‘Mother—’

  ‘Goodbye, my dear. And remember, always be strong.’

  The phone went dead. Jenifa stared at the handset for a long moment before replacing it carefully. She looked round the bedroom until her gaze found the link detector, lying on the bed where Chaing had dropped it so disdainfully.

  She picked it up, staring obsessively at the small green light on top, willing it to turn red, to prove her right. There was nothing else left now. ‘I will finish my mission,’ she told the little device. ‘That’s real strength.’

  *

  The curfew wasn’t yet official, yet there was almost no traffic on Port Chana’s wet streets, and no pedestrians anywhere. That didn’t surprise Chaing; the Eliters would know what was coming. They’d probably known before Stonal told him.

  Chaing used a Cubar from the local PSR office to take him to the marina through the miserable drizzle coming in off the sea, its wipers swishing across the windscreen with a monotonous squeaking. His driver parked by the gates, so he buttoned his coat against the damp air as he hobbled along to the Ankatra Cafe. At this time of night it was closed and shuttered, but Corilla was waiting under one of the trasla trees outside, wrapped up in a big ankle-length raincoat. He suspected she wasn’t alone, but couldn’t see anyone else.