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It wasn’t that she didn’t blink, that she had a hypnotic stare, or laser beams coming out of her pupils or anything. Her eyes were the same dark colour as when he’d first looked into them aboard the Hopper, months ago.

But there was nobody home. Someone was looking through her eyes.

A lot of someones, said the Brotherhood.

Their voices crawled. He was backed against the wall, wanting nothing more than to get away from her.

‘Where’s the Doctor?’ he said.

You’re both safe and well, said the Brotherhood. The rescue autopilot brought you down on the landing pad of our base.

‘That was you,’ said Chris. ‘You attacked us in the shuttle. We could have crashed!’

285

He looked around the room, everywhere but at her. The wall was curved, everything was made from inflatable plasticrete.

Some kind of building on the surface, then.

‘Where’s the Doctor?’ said Chris again.

We’ll bring you to him shortly, said the Brotherhood. Yes, I did scan your mind while you were unconscious. It’s a shame the Doctor didn’t tell you his plan.

‘He –’

I suppose it’s possible you’re right, he doesn’t have a plan at all, to make sure we can’t anticipate it. His mind is almost impossible to read.

Something cold went down Chris’s spine. ‘How long have I been unconscious?’ he said.

Twenty-four hours.

Chris lunged at her. He’d barely begun to move when a ton of psychokinetic force fell on him, pinning him to the bed at an awkward angle.

‘Let me see him,’ gasped Chris.

All right, said Iaomnet. She released the pressure. We’re just about ready for you, anyway.

Achebe Gorge, Mars

Vincenzi and Muller sat side by side on a fallen beam.

Vincenzi was smoking. ‘You want one?’

‘Dirty habit,’ said the stocky sergeant. ‘Terrible for your health.’

There was a flash of weapons fire in the distance, on the outside of Achebe Rim. ‘Why do so many soldiers smoke, Sergeant?’ Vincenzi asked.

‘A smart missile is much worse for your health, sir,’ she said.

Vincenzi grinned. ‘Report.’

‘We sustained light casualties only, sir. I’m working on the precise figure. The Unitatus will be making their drop in forty minutes. They’ll convey us back to the Victoria and continue the clean-up operation. The defenders’ actions are limited to small pockets of resistance along our route. A few young ones too stubborn to give up.’

286

‘They’ve probably forgotten to tell them to surrender,’ said Vincenzi.

Everything had gone very much according to plan. The defenders had collapsed the Rim gap they’d been aiming for with high explosives. But they’d fitted the tanks with outsystem mining tracks, and had just crawled up and over the rubble and into the Gorge.

After that, there was a lot of very intelligent but utterly hopeless resistance. Vincenzi had personally lobbed a shell into the conical surface of the C and C building, watching it crash down.

Now he and the sergeant were sitting in the rubble, on top of the biggest, toughest door in the solar system.

‘What do you suppose they’re doing down there?’ he said, drawing a line in the ash and dirt with the tip of his boot.

‘Breathing hard, sir,’ said Muller.

Mimas

The Doctor was sitting in a buggy, a tiny, spidery vehicle designed to handle rough terrain in very low gravity. There were seats for four; he sat right at the back, hands clasped in his lap, head leaning against the window. He was very pale.

Iaomnet watched from the hangar floor as Chris climbed into the vehicle, the only one in sight. She pulled the door closed behind him.

‘I don’t feel very well,’ said the Doctor.

Chris bit his lip. He put a hand on the Doctor’s arm, frightened by how light he felt. It wasn’t just the tiny gravity. The Doctor felt paper-thin, as though he wasn’t quite there.

‘What are we going to do?’ said Chris.

The Doctor put a finger to his lips.

Iaomnet climbed aboard and shut the outer door. There was an ear-popping puff as the buggy pressurized. Iaomnet strapped herself into the driver’s seat. Banks of lights switched on in the dimness of the vehicle. She