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‘The quicker the better—I’ll tell the Capo that the cavalry are coming.’

‘Carabinere.’ Trin corrected Latourn humourlessly, and signed off.

* * * *

They continued south but this time Trin returned to manual flight to distract himself from his hunger pains and his fears. Djeserit had not uttered a sound since Pell and he fought his compulsion to glance anxiously at her. Hovering over a ginko was not the way to keep the respect of these men he was leading.

As they descended towards the Pablo site, they flew over the giant excavation machinery at Pellegrini B, which stood inert and abandoned: vari-loaders, scrapers, and haulers, their paint blistering under the sun. Many, dust blowing from their half-full buckets, looked as if their operation had been suspended mid-action.

‘Looks like everyone’s deserted, Principe,’ said Seb Malocchi.

A sensation of unease grew inside Trin. Was he the only one who knew of Pablo’s food and medic stores?

They set down on the landing pad by the Pablo site office and spilled from the AiVs, gathering in the shade of two haulers. Joe Scali stood next to Trin like an anxious fratella. ‘Bring the ginko, Nobile. You will have to carry her,’ Trin whispered to him.

His friend nodded and returned to the AiV.

Better that he himself kept his distance from her, Trin thought. ‘Where is the entrance to the main shaft?’ he asked.

‘Behind the water tanks,’ called an Ascanio. ‘But there are only these two TerVs left. We will have to walk or do repeat trips.’

Trin glanced around. Apart from the gusting swirls of dust and the men’s voices, the mine was unnaturally quiet and without movement. ‘Together,’ he said firmly. ‘Use the TerVs to follow with the injured.’

Again there was no argument from the men.

They walked into the main tunnel minutes later. As the light faded behind them, Trin found himself breathing too frequently. Even though the tunnel was wide and the descent gentle, it was as if a weight of rock pressed down on him and the oxygen in the air had diminished.

They zigzagged downward along the road for an hour or so before they reached the bottom of the main shaft. The road opened out into a large cavern into which entry was blocked by a line of electric crawlers, diggers and spiders. The line was too perfect, too tight, as if the vehicles had been set there as a deliberate boundary.

‘Wait,’ Trin told the Carabinere.

He motioned Seb Malocchi to follow him as he climbed onto a giant track of one of the machines. Behind it, the cavern was pitch black.

Malocchi pressed a torch into his hand.

Trin shone it up to the rocky ceiling and then along and down one side.

‘In front of us,’ whispered Malocchi. ‘Some movement, I think.’

Trin swung the light directly in front of him. Anxious faces peered back at him from the gloom. Hundreds of them.

‘Don Pellegrini,’ shouted a voice in relief. ‘Thank Crux—it is the young Principe.’

* * * *

MIRA

The Saqr broke through the fence before dawn.

There were just shouts at first: unintelligible noise that could have meant nothing more than another fight at one of the clubs.

Then, as Mira started awake, the shouts became hoarse but distinct words that filled her with a sick kind of fear.

‘Fence’s down!’

‘Wake up. Wake up. They’re through!’

‘The Saqr are coming!’

Mira rolled from her bed and began pulling on her fellala. The korm woke a moment later and gave a loud screech. Across on the other side of the room Mesquite was shaking women awake, directing them to stay calm and collect their things. They were assembled in a handful of minutes, clutching their bambini and their meagre possessions.

Mira slipped Vito into a harness that Cass had fashioned from kranse stalks. She put her hand on the korm’s forearm to quieten it down.

It blinked its large eyes.

‘Stay near me,’ Mira said, ‘whatever happens.’

The alien stopped screeching and chittered.

Suddenly Mesquite was next to her. ‘Cass will be waiting with her land barge. You take these women