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‘Way to go!’ Forrester crowed, jumping up and punching the air with her fist. ‘Score one to the kid.’

‘The wall!’ Bernice shouted, but it was too late. The pilot, a dark shadow through the flitter’s canopy, tried to spin the vehicle around before it hit the approaching far wall of the flitterpark, but he was still travelling too fast. The flitter overturned and rolled. Bernice could just make out Cwej’s silhouette fighting the controls, but he didn’t have time.

The flitter hit the wall and exploded.

A wall of flame washed across the ground towards them. Bernice threw herself behind a pillar, but Forrester just covered her eyes and ran into the pall of greasy black smoke that erupted behind the fire. Cursing, Bernice followed.

The flitter was a blackened skeleton with a blazing heart when they got to it, and the heat was so fierce that Bernice could feel her skin blistering.

Nobody could have survived the inferno. Nobody.

She had to drag Forrester away. Her face was contorted into a snarl of rage, and she struggled with Bernice, trying to get back to the burning vehicle.

‘Don’t be a fool!’ Bernice yelled. ‘You can’t help him now!’

‘I’m not losing another partner,’ Forrester spat, ‘I’m not losing another partner. Not now. Not like this.’

‘Forrester, we need to get out of here. That explosion will bring everybody and their aunt Ada running.’

Forrester shook her head. ‘I’m not leaving.’

‘What?’

143

‘You heard.’ She took a deep breath. ‘They’ve won. They’ve beaten us. We can’t crack the conspiracy now, not with Chris gone.’

‘Don’t be stupid. We can –’

‘We can’t. I just don’t care enough. Chris cared. He was the idealist. I’m just an old, tired woman, and I’m giving up.’

Blackened wreckage shifted a few feet away, and something tried to speak.

Bernice’s first thought was that it was the smashed remnants of one of the robots, still trying to kill them. She was just glancing around for something to use as a weapon when Forrester pushed her to the ground and went for her blaster.

‘Help . . . me . . . ’ a voice whispered, full of pain.

Forrester’s finger paused over the trigger. Her eyes were wide, disbelieving.

‘Chris?’ she cried.

Within moments, they were both crouching beside Cwej’s body. His skin was blackened and cracked, revealing weeping red flesh beneath, and most of his fur had been burned off. One ear was missing.

‘You stupid fool,’ Forrester growled. Bernice glanced up at her, surprised by the vehemence of her reaction, and looked away again just as quickly. Tears were streaming down Forrester’s face. ‘I’m not losing another partner.’ The Adjudicator repeated the words like a mantra. ‘Whatever plans you might have had about dying, you’d better cancel them.’

‘If you insist,’ Cwej whispered.

‘What happened?’ Bernice asked. ‘Can you talk about it?’

‘Couldn’t get the canopy open,’ he murmured. His lips were bleeding. ‘Saw the wall coming up. Managed to get the emergency release to –’ He broke off, coughing. Forrester held his head tenderly. ‘– got the release to work and jumped free. Got caught in the blast.’ He tried to smile. The cracks in his lips opened wider, and the trickles of blood increased. ‘Used to try that sort of . . .

of stunt back in traffic control. Forgot I wasn’t flying an Adjudication flitter.

No stability, these civilian models.’

‘For Goddess’ sake, don’t try to talk, you moron,’ Forrester snapped.

‘What happened to the bots?’ he asked urgently.

‘You got ’em,’ she confirmed.

‘Good,’ he whispered, closing his eyes. ‘Wouldn’t want anything to happen to y . . . ’

His voice trailed off into silence.

‘Is he . . . ?’ Forrester’s eyes were locked on Bernice’s, as if she didn’t dare look down at her squire.

Bernice quickly checked him over. ‘No,’ she said finally, ‘but we need to get him to a medic, and quickly.’

144

Forrester bit her lip. ‘We can’t risk staying in the Overcity,’ she said. ‘It’s too dangerous. We’ve got to go down into the Undertown. It