The Ascendant Stars - Michael Cobley [73]
Julia considered him a moment. ‘Okay, but I withhold judgement until I am satisfied of your intentions over the medium term.’
He bowed. ‘So, to the immediate. Julia, what purpose do you follow? What is it that you want the most? Revenge against those who cast you out, perhaps?’
‘Revenge might be satisfying later,’ she said. ‘However, my former captors are planning an attack against multiple targets, supposedly politically significant individuals on five hundred worlds. But I’m very certain that it’s all to do with something else … ’ She hesitated, then decided that she had little to lose at this point and proceeded to tell Harry about her and the others’ capture by Corazon Talavera and about how they were used, leaving nothing out. Harry listened intently, nodding occasionally.
‘The Chaurixa terrorists are well known for their ability to stir up trouble,’ he said once she had finished. ‘Until Talavera came along they had acquired a reputation for exotic weapons and theatrical mass-death events. Since she gained control, they have allied themselves to the distinctly extreme cause of the Spiral Prophet, which hardly stirs sympathy in the ranks of other movements. Talavera clearly has an agenda, which seems closely linked to events on Darien … ’
But I’m here, who knows how far away while Talavera’s ship is on its way to its crucial destination. Perhaps I was too hasty in my escape.
‘I think I am going to have to return to the Chaurixa ship,’ she said. ‘Is that possible?’
‘Everything needed to track shipboard tiernet nodes is on hand, right here, so usually I would say yes. Unfortunately, our continued presence could lead to an inconvenient demise.’ So saying, Harry looked up.
Following his gaze, Julia saw beyond the shadowy streetscape to the glittering clusters of Ingress-Lock 87 and a flock of shining spheres, each one emitting a shimmering fan of light that passed back and forth across the crowded areas of the data cavern. Each overlapped with its neighbours in a swath that was moving steadily closer.
‘The invigilance system is performing a deep-grid audit,’ Harry said. ‘Detection is not in our interest – high-complexity entities like us are automatically considered a threat and treated accordingly. We’ll have to leave – now.’
Julia felt a flutter of something like panic. ‘I assume this means the use of more orgs.’
Harry nodded and handed her what looked like two playing cards – one had a picture of a winepress, the other an image of a pair of hands shaking.
‘Put them in your pocket to embed them.’
She did so and felt a small quiver, and when she patted her pocket it was empty. Above them, the fans of scrutinising radiance drew nearer.
‘Now take my hand and say “compression one”,’ Harry said.
‘Where are we going?’
‘A place where the risk is less imminent.’
For a moment Julia swayed on her indecision, wishing one of the others, like Irenya, were there to advise. But she knew that in the end it came down to trust. So she took his hand and said the words. There was a bizarre instant when everything around her slowed down and down into gritty, grainy, colourless images that flattened out to greyness …
‘ … eno noisserpmoc … ’
Suddenly the night-time street corner popped back into its original appearance. Only now, beyond the hazy periphery of Harry’s standard background they appeared to be standing on a large shelf jutting from the shadowy wall of a wide horizontal shaft stretching off into a faintly radiant distance. As with the Brolturan Ingress-Lock 87, a bright cord of dataflow entered via a conduit and branched as it ran straight through the centre of the shaft. This dataflow, however, was a slender beam and its few branches, almost threadlike, split off along irregular towers protruding from the sides of the shaft. Around their bases, cube and dome structures glowed and pulsed – the rest of the datascape seemed dead and inert, plunged into deactivated gloom.
‘So we were compressed,