“If it is,” said Odin, “I would have to say that they were quite insane.”
Outside the pinnace, it was even colder than Stasiak remembered, and he hugged himself tightly and stamped his feet hard on the landing pad while he waited for the heating elements in his uniform to kick in. He was beginning to think he should have found the time to give his uniform a thorough overhaul before he came down here. It was long overdue, and Stasiak was coming to the conclusion he might have left it a little too long. He shrugged, and rubbed his hands together briskly. He’d survive. Ripper, of course, was taking no notice of the cold, and was staring out at the forest boundary with calm, thoughtful eyes. Stasiak followed his gaze, but was damned if he could make out anything significant, or even interesting. He sniffed loudly, and looked longingly back at the pinnace.
“Ripper, tell me you didn’t just drag me out here for the exercise. Tell me there’s a good reason why I’m standing here in the cold, before I decide to batter you to death with a blunt instrument and dance a jig on your remains.”
“You don’t have a blunt instrument,” said Ripper, without looking round.
“I’ll improvise!”
Ripper smiled, but still didn’t look away from the forest. “You weren’t looking at the sensor panels, were you? According to the sensors built into our proximity mines, something or someone has approached or crossed our perimeter in several places before falling back to the forest again.”
“You’re kidding,” said Stasiak. “You’ve got to be kidding. If something’s crossed our perimeter, why haven’t the mines gone off?”
“Good question,” said Ripper. “Another good question might be why the mines’ sensors detected a presence, when the pinnace’s instruments continue to insist there are no living things on this planet apart from us. You’ve got to admit, Lew, it’s an interesting place our Captain has brought us to.”
“I’ll give him interesting,” said Stasiak darkly. He moved over to stand beside Ripper, and glared out at the mists and the trees. “You know why he brought us here, Rip? Because we’re expendable. We’re just here to test the water for him. And if anything were to happen to us, he’d just shrug and say what a pity, and then contact the Darkwind and have them ship down two more warm bodies.”
“That goes with the job,” said Ripper. “With being a marine. If you can’t take a joke, you shouldn’t have joined.”
“Just let me survive the next five months, and my contract will be up,” said Stasiak. “And then I’ll be out of the marines so fast it’ll make your head spin. I can’t believe I landed an assignment like this so close to getting free of it all. I’ll tell you this for nothing, Rip: I’m not taking a single risk down here that I don’t absolutely have to, I’m taking this one by thebook and by the numbers, with no volunteering for anything. Whatever else happens on this mission, I’m coming back alive and intact, and you can put money on that.”
Ripper finally turned to look at him. “And what will you do then, Lew? Where will you go, once you’ve left the Service? All you know, all your training and experience, comes from being a marine. There aren’t that many openings for a professional killer, outside the Service. Shall I tell you what’s going to happen to you? You’ll go from one dead-end job to another, each more frustrating than the one before, breaking your back every day for half the money you used to make as a marine. And finally, when your money’s run out and you’re out of your mind with boredom, some shark with a big smile and a suit that cost a year of your wages will sign you up as a mercenary for which he gets a nice commission, and you get to tour the hellholes of the Empire. In the end you’ll come running back to the Service and sign on again, just like most ex-marines do.”
“Like you did,” said Stasiak.
“Yeah. Like I did. Get used to the idea, Lew. This is all there is for people like us.”
“Not me,” said Stasiak. “Once I’m out of here they’re never getting their hands on me again. I’ve got plans. I’m going places. I’m going to make something of myself.”
“Sure you are, Lew.”
“I mean it!”
“I know you do. I hope you make it. In the meantime, keep your eyes open and your head down. And don’t look now, but I think I just saw something moving out on the perimeter, at two o’clock.”
Stasiak looked round casually, his eyes just happening to drift past two o’clock. There was nothing there. He cut in his infrared implants, but no heat traces showed anywhere on the perimeter. He patched into the pinnace sensors and studied their signals directly, but there was still nothing anywhereon the boundary. He broke contact, looked at Ripper, and shrugged.
“Jumping at shadows, Rip. There’s nothing out there.”
“Yes there is. I saw it. Keep watching; it’ll give itself away. It’s at times like this I wish the Empire would relax its ban on all but the most essential implants. I’ve seen stuff on the black market you wouldn’t believe; implants and built-in weapon systems that could make a man unbeatable in the field. Which is pretty much why they’re banned, of course. The Empire doesn’t want its good little soldier boys getting ideas above their station. They still haven’t forgotten the Hadenman rebellion.”
“Yeah, well,” said Stasiak. “Those cyborgs were enough to frighten anyone. And I still can’t see anything out there. Maybe it’s the Captain, on his way back.”
“If it was, he’d have shown up on the infrared, wouldn’t he? Though that’s another question worth thinking about. What is the good Captain doing down here, risking his precious neck dirtside with grunts like us?”
“Looking for Carrion, whoever he is.”
“Yeah.” Ripper frowned for the first time. “The Captain knows a lot more about what’s going on here than he’s letting on. I’ll lay you odds this Carrion turns out to be some kind of powerful esper. That’s the only way he could be shielding himself from the pinnace’s sensors.”
Stasiak shook his head dubiously. “I don’t know. If Carrion’s been here on his own for the past ten years, what’s he been living on? I mean, there isn’t any game for him to catch. Every living thing was wiped out by the scorching. And even if he did find some way to survive, he’s got to be stone crazy after ten years of his own company.”
“Not necessarily,” said Ripper. “He could have worked out some kind of deal with the Base personnel. There. Did you see that?”
“Yeah,” said Stasiak quietly. “Right at the edge of the forest; two o’clock, just like you said. Still can’t make out what it is. Want to go and take a look?”
“Easy, Lew. It could be a trick, to draw us away from the ship. Besides, if it’s come this close, why hasn’t it set off any of the mines? Whoever that is has got to be within their range. Maybe he’s got a way to turn them on and off. He could be just waiting for us to walk by one, and then detonate it himself. Whoosh bang, and they’ll send your balls home in a box, because they couldn’t find the rest of you. No, Lew; short of an actual target or a direct threat to the pinnace, I’m not moving from this spot. At least, not until I’ve got a much better idea of the opposition.”
“Damn right,” said Stasiak, still keeping a careful if unobtrusive watch on two o’clock. “If the Captain wants to go off on his own chasing after ghosts, that’s his affair. Short of a direct order, I’m not moving. I can’t see it anymore, Rip. Can you see it?”
“No. It’s gone again.”
Stasiak looked at the watch face imbedded in his wrist. “You know, the Captain’s been gone a long time. He should have been back by now.”
Ripper shrugged. “How long does it take to track down someone who officially doesn’t exist? Don’t worry about the Captain. He’s a grown man. He can take care of himself.”
They stood together for a while, staring out into the mists.
“You know,” said Stasiak finally, “if there was a ghost or something out there at two o’clock, that puts it in roughly the same sector as the Investigator. Perhaps they’ll bump into each ot
her.”
“In which case,” said Ripper, “I feel sorry for the ghost.”
CHAPTER FOUR
* * *
Carrion
CAPTAIN Silence rose slowly to his feet, wincing despite himself as his injured ribs protested. Carrion made no move to help him, for which Silence was thankful. He didn’t want any reason to feel grateful to Carrion. It would have made what he had to do that much harder. Pushing his various aches and pains to the back of his mind, he concentrated on the traitor standing before him. It had been ten years since he’d last seen the man who used to be his friend, and he’d never expected to see him again. He should have died with the Ashrai. Dead, he might have emerged as a martyr; alive, he was just another loose end, an embarrassment. Someone Silence could use to solve an awkward problem.
He realised he was just standing and staring at Carrion but the words wouldn’t come. He’d had it all worked out, coming down on the pinnace. He knew exactly what to say, what buttons to push to manipulate Carrion into doing what was necessary. Only now he was face to face with an old friend, a ghost from the past, and the words were ashes in his mouth. This man had been his friend, closer than a brother, but the last time they’d met they’d tried to kill each other. For a long time, Silence believed he’d succeeded. And then he began to hear stories from men who’d served on Unseeli, stories of the man who wouldn’t die. The ghost in the trees. Carrion.
The years passed, but Silence never went back. He didn’t want to have to kill his friend again. But time andcircumstance had brought him back anyway, and past sins belonged in the past. All that mattered now was his mission, and the things he had to do to carry it out. Silence knew his duty. He’d always known his duty. And if that meant using and betraying his friend one more time, he could live with that. He’d lived with worse.
Carrion reached up and pushed back the cowl that concealed his face. Silence felt a sudden chill run through him, and the hackles rose on the back of his neck. Carrion hadn’t aged. He’d spent ten years alone under terrible conditions, but there wasn’t a single line on his face. He looked just as Silence remembered him: young, proud, unyielding. Time had not touched him. But then, ghosts didn’t age. Silence felt suddenly awkward, ashamed at the changes that had taken place in himself over the past decade. What did Carrion make of him, with his retreating hairline and his thickening waist? Had he even noticed, and if he had, did he care? And most important, did he realise that this was not the same John Silence he’d once known, who might have hesitated to sacrifice his friend if the game demanded it. Just looking at the calm young man before him, Silence felt older, dirtier and more used. He still didn’t know what to say. And in the end, Carrion was the one who broke the silence.
“What are you doing here, Captain?”
“I need your help,” said Silence evenly.
Carrion smiled briefly, as though it was something he’d lost the ability to do, over the years. “I didn’t think you’d come all this way just to renew old aquaintance. I always knew you’d be back someday. We have unfinished business, you and I.”
“That can wait,” said Silence. “Do you know what’s happened in Base Thirteen?”
“I know the force screen went up, some time back. That’s all.”
“You didn’t have any contact with the Base personnel?”
The smile came and went again, but it didn’t touch Carrion’s eyes. “The Base Commander had a shoot-on-sight policy where I was concerned. He needn’t have bothered. He had nothing I wanted. But they were scared of me, of what I’d become, and they were right about that, at least.”
“What have you become?” said Silence. “How have you survived here all these years, with no supplies and no resources?”
“Strictly speaking, I didn’t. I’ve been through a lot since we last met, Captain. I’m not the man you remember.” He looked away for a moment, as though listening to a voice only he could hear, and then nodded slowly and looked back at Silence. “We can’t talk here. You have no friends among the trees, and not even I can protect you against the whole of the forest. Come with me. My home isn’t far.”
He turned and walked away, without once looking back to see if Silence was following. Silence moved off after him, gritting his teeth against the grinding pain in his side. The wound didn’t look too severe, but something would have to be done about it soon, before he became weakened through blood loss. He allowed his uniform to release endorphins into his system, enough to handle the pain but not enough to cloud his thinking. He walked beside Carrion through the bronze and gold forest, following a track only the outlaw could see. Nothing moved in the mists, but the quiet had a sullen, expectant feel, and Silence could sense the watching eyes even if he couldn’t see them.
The trees parted suddenly to reveal a great hill of metal overgrown with silver briar. The metal was scarred and pockmarked, and briar penetrated the outer shell here and there like some parasitic ivy, but even so, Silence could still recognise the battle wagon beneath. There were supposed to be quite a few of them, scattered throughout the forest, left to lie where they had fallen, brought down by the Ahsraiand their psi-storms. Silence thought he remembered the clearing; it was one of the few battlegrounds where he and Carrion had both been present.
Lasers flamed on the night, and concussion grenades blossomed in the dark like scarlet flowers. Disrupters flared, and there was the loud humming of raised force shields. The Ashrai came in never-ending waves—huge, ugly figures that moved with surprising grace and speed. Their psi-storms crackled on the air around them, altering probabilities and tearing at the mental barriers the Empire espers had cast over the ground troops. Claws and fangs met swords and shields, and blood flowed in rivers on the broken ground. Battle wagons lumbered through the night, forcing their way between the trees, and disrupter beams stabbed down from low-flying skimmers darting back and forth overhead. Science clashed with savagery, and the battle swept this way and that, neither side able to gain the upper hand for long.
Silence shivered suddenly, emerging from a memory so real it seemed to him that he could still hear the battle cries and the screams of the dying. The Ashrai had been a brave and cunning foe, but they never stood a chance against the Empire. As soon as Silence realised he couldn’t take the ground the Ashrai held, or hang on to his own, he simply moved all his people off-planet and called in the starcruisers to scorch the whole damned planet from pole to pole. Millions died, all life was swept away, and not even the bodies remained to mark the fallen. The Empire was nothing if not thorough. Silence had won, and all it cost him was his honour and his friend. For a while he thought he’d die without them, but he didn’t. No one ever really dies from a broken heart.
When it was over, the Empire hadn’t known what to do with Silence. On the one hand, he’d lost control of the situation and had to be rescued by a scorching, buton the other hand, he had solved the Unseeli problem quite conclusively. And permanently. So they smiled and shook his hand and patted him on the head in public, and made a note in his file that he was never to be promoted. He could keep his Captaincy, but there’d never be anything more for him. Silence didn’t care. He’d lost all taste for ambition on Unseeli.
And now here he was, back again, and it seemed the problem hadn’t been solved after all.
They finally came to the clearing where Carrion had his home, and Silence was struck with an almost overpowering sense of déjà vu. It hadn’t changed at all. Before him were the same trees, the same clearing, the same patch of metal briar camouflaging the trapdoor entrance to the tunnels under the earth. Silence watched numbly as Carrion carefully lifted the briar to one side and pulled open the trapdoor. The last time Silence had been here was when he’d disobeyed orders and made a last-minute trip to try and talk Carrion out of turning traitor. They were still friends then, and the outlaw had yet to come by his new name. They met as friends and parted as enemies, and what happened afterward had all the inevitability of destiny. It hadn’t stopped either
of them from playing their role to the full. And now here they were again, with only the echoes of old friendship and enmity holding them together, looking once more for some middle ground they could agree on. Silence smiled sourly. Maybe they’d be luckier this time.
Carrion descended into the dark stairway beneath the trapdoor, and Silence followed him down. He paused briefly to test the weight of the trapdoor. It was just as heavy as he’d remembered, but Carrion had hefted it with one hand, as though it were weightless, He cleared his throat, and Carrion looked up at him.
“Do you want me to shut the door behind us?” said Silence.
Carrion smiled briefly. “There’s really no need. It’s not as if there was anyone else who might come in after us. Still, if it makes you feel more secure …”
He gestured at the trapdoor, and it started to lean forward of its own accord. Silence hurried down the narrow earth steps into the gloom of the tunnel, and the trapdoor slammed shut behind him, the impact of its weight sending tremors through the earth walls and floor. Silence glared after Carrion, but he was already walking off down the tunnel, and Silence had to hurry to keep up. The passage was wide enough for both of them to walk side by side, with a good two- or three-foot clearance above their heads. The earth had a rich, peaty smell that was not unpleasant. Roots from the metal trees had been trained along the uneven ceiling, filling the tunnel with their warm, unwavering light. The enclosed space was still distinctly claustrophobic, and Silence tried hard not to think about the increasing weight of earth above him as the passage sloped steadily downwards.