The Thousand Emperors (35 page)

Maxwell took a step forward, only for the mechants to drop down in front of him, blocking his path. ‘This
really
isn’t the time for debate,’ he yelled. ‘Stay here,
and you’re dead for sure.’

Luc ran towards the flier, and felt a flush of relief when the mechants guarding Maxwell made no move towards him. He quickly pulled the tarpaulin to one side, revealing a hatch in the side of
the craft that hissed open automatically. Gazing into its darkened interior, he then turned back to Maxwell.

‘Go back inside,’ Luc yelled over to him, ‘and wait there. I’ve got an idea.’

‘What the hell are you doing, Mr Gabion?’

‘You’ll see.’

He climbed in through the open hatch, then turned, yanking the tarpaulin back down until it was draped back over the side of the craft. As he clambered into the cockpit, the hatch closed once
more, sealing him inside.

Once there, he sat in the pilot’s seat and waited for the Sandoz to arrive, wondering if what he was about to attempt wasn’t in fact the stupidest thing he had ever done.

‘This is insane,’ Maxwell hissed.

‘Just bear with me, okay?’

He stood side by side with Luc’s data-ghost in the library’s main hall, a real-time projection of the hangar floating before them. They could see that an armoured Sandoz heavy-lifter
had just dropped down to a landing not far from the parked flier, still stationary beneath its grey tarpaulin. They watched as several figures emerged from the heavy-lifter, too far away to be
immediately identified. All but two of the figures wore the heavy armoured suits of Sandoz warriors.

Maxwell made a gesture, and the view zoomed in towards the two in question. Luc saw with a spasm of shock that one of them was Eleanor; she wore her SecInt uniform, and was accompanied by Bailey
Cripps.

They watched as Cripps, Eleanor and the soldiers made their way inside the library. Luc flexed his fingers by his sides, the breath catching in his throat.

Even though he had data-ghosted many times before, the depth of experience afforded by his lattice made it an effort of will to remember where he was, in reality, aboard Maxwell’s flier,
and not in fact standing next to Maxwell in the library. He’d tried to persuade Maxwell to do the same – hide elsewhere in the library and present only his data-ghost to Cripps –
but, as Maxwell himself had pointed out, there were only so many places for him to hide. Something in the other man’s manner gave Luc the sense that this was a confrontation the Councillor
had been anticipating for a very, very long time.

‘She shouldn’t be here,’ Luc muttered. Cripps must have followed up on his threat. He should have anticipated something like this.

‘Is there a problem?’ asked Maxwell.

‘That’s Eleanor Jaq. She’s a SecInt officer. Cripps threatened to arrest her at one point, to try and force me to turn informant for him.’

‘Ah.’ Maxwell nodded. ‘You believe she is his prisoner.’

The view changed, showing Cripps leading Eleanor and the Sandoz through the steel door connecting the hangar to the library, then up the steps leading to the main atrium. Eleanor walked side by
side with Cripps, who leaned in towards her and said something inaudible into her ear. Eleanor smiled uncertainly in response.

‘If I had to be honest,’ said Maxwell, nodding towards Eleanor’s image, ‘she’s not
acting
like a prisoner. And perhaps you haven’t noticed, but she
is
armed.’

Luc started to say something, but the words died in his throat when he saw Maxwell was right. She had a holster on her hip.

‘There’s only one of her,’ Luc managed to say, ‘and several of them. If she tried to . . .’

‘I think you know as well as I do they would have disarmed her immediately if she was under arrest,’ Maxwell pointed out. ‘What do you intend to do now?’

‘Just what I was going to do anyway,’ he said, feeling the first curdling threads of betrayal knot themselves around his stomach.

‘Then you’d better start now,’ said Maxwell, ‘because they’re going to be here any second.’

Luc nodded tightly. ‘Good luck.’

‘My luck ran out long ago, Mr Gabion,’ Maxwell replied with a sigh. ‘If I had any to spare, I’d let you have it. You’re going to need it.’

Luc’s data-ghost vanished from Maxwell’s side, reappearing a moment later at the far end of the library’s central atrium, and positioned slightly behind one of several pillars
supporting a first-floor gallery. Local micro-relays fed him the sound of voices echoing from the high, vaulted ceiling, and he peered round the side of the pillar to see Cripps emerge from the
stairwell, followed by Eleanor and the Sandoz. A library mechant came swooping down, falling into a stationary position to the one side of and slightly above Maxwell, its audio circuits open so Luc
could hear everything that was said.

Cripps stepped up to Maxwell while the Sandoz hung back, their eyes scouring the library.

‘It’s been a long time, Bailey,’ said Maxwell, stepping towards him. ‘What brings you here?’

Luc saw Cripps unfasten the holster at his side. ‘Master Rachid,’ Cripps said over his shoulder, ‘tell your men to search everywhere until you find Gabion.’

Luc pulled his data-ghost back into the shadows, not wanting it to be seen just yet, and watched as Rachid ordered four of the soldiers to the nearest elevator platforms. At the same time, he
fired a command to Maxwell’s flier. It lifted up from the frozen concrete, the tarpaulin that had been covering it falling away as it rose. Within seconds it was accelerating towards the
clouds covering the nearby mountain peaks.

‘To be honest, Javier,’ said Cripps in that same moment, turning back to Maxwell, ‘it’s not been nearly long enough.’ Eleanor remained silent by his side, her
expression pale and nervous. ‘Why don’t you save us the time and trouble and tell us where Luc Gabion is?’

Maxwell affected mild confusion. ‘Who?’

Cripps’ face darkened. ‘Don’t waste my time. We both know Zelia de Almeida sent him here. Where is he?’

Maxwell affected a tone of distant curiosity. ‘Why are you looking for this man?’

‘Zelia has been conspiring to assassinate Father Cheng and destabilize the Tian Di – a conspiracy I have reason to believe
you
are part of. Gabion is a Benarean Black Lotus
agent under her command. Now tell me where he is.’

‘Or what? You’ll kill me? Surely you can do better than that.’

‘I know where every one of your backups are located,’ Cripps barked. ‘Don’t think I would hesitate to wipe every damn one.’

‘It makes no difference,’ Maxwell replied with a shrug. ‘I have no idea who or what you’re talking about.’

‘Fuck it,’ said Cripps, sliding the pistol from its holster and shooting Maxwell at close enough range that the blast very nearly decapitated him. Blood hissed as it splashed against
the floor and nearby furniture.

Cripps turned to the two remaining Sandoz and muttered something indistinct as Javier Maxwell’s body crumpled to the floor. A moment later one of the Sandoz opened fire on the library
mechant. It jerked backwards under the sudden assault, and Luc lost contact with it. He saw its blackened remains thud to the floor.

‘Hey!’

Luc glanced up from behind the pillar to see a Sandoz staring down at him from the upper gallery. He darted backwards, moving fast, and a loud, hollow thud filled the air at the same moment that
a crater appeared where his data-ghost had been standing only a moment before.

Maxwell had allowed Luc to upload a map of the library once he had explained his intentions, and he now retreated towards a doorway leading out of the atrium and into a maze of reading rooms. He
ran past low tables and couches and through several more doors connecting each room to the next, hearing muffled shouts and heavy footfalls following not far behind.

By now, Maxwell’s flier had very nearly reached low orbit. Luc felt his weight begin to fall away. He squeezed his eyes shut, sweat trickling down his brow, and focused on what was
happening in Maxwell’s library, already some hundreds of kilometres behind him.

‘Gabion!’ Cripps’ amplified voice boomed through the library as he ran. ‘My men are seeding this place with explosives. You can either surrender, or go down with it. Your
choice.’

Go to hell
, thought Luc, guiding his data-ghost into a corridor lined with yet more doors. He checked Maxwell’s map and saw that the corridor joined another up ahead to form a
T-junction. That second passageway angled back at both ends to wrap around the reading rooms.

Another Sandoz appeared from around the corner of the T-junction, taking aim.

Luc dived through a door to one side, finding himself inside a reading room indistinguishable from any of the others, then ran through the door set into its opposite wall. He could hear the
Sandoz stamping after him.

He passed through more doors and more rooms until he came out into a corridor, and saw an elevator platform tucked into an alcove to his left, right where he’d known it would be. Heavy,
muffled footsteps came slamming through the reading rooms behind him, getting closer with every second.

In the blink of an eye, Luc was standing on the first floor gallery, looking down at Eleanor, who hadn’t moved. There was no sign of Cripps.

‘Eleanor?’ he screamed down at her. ‘What the hell is going on? Is Cripps holding you prisoner?’

She looked up at him, lips set in a thin line. ‘None of this would have happened if you’d just listened to me and talked to Director Lethe, like I asked you to.’

‘Eleanor, you have to listen—’

‘No, Luc, you need to listen to me. I spoke to Lethe on your behalf and told him everything – about what really happened on Aeschere, about the lattice and Zelia de Almeida –
all of it. I had to, don’t you see?’

‘I thought you understood,’ he said. ‘I trusted you more than anyone else. Or do you really believe what Cripps just said about me?’

She hesitated for a moment. ‘No, of course I don’t. But we need to find a way to fix you first. Then you can explain your side of things.’

Luc felt like she’d torn him open with claws of steel and left him to bleed to death. He stared down at her, suddenly lost for words.

Hearing a high-pitched beep to his right, he turned to see a Sandoz mechant accelerating towards him.

Instantly he ran, explosive rounds ripping chunks of wood and brick from the walls and shelves behind him, the mechant banging into walls as it came veering after him.

He was running blind now. Incredibly, Cripps still hadn’t worked out he was already long gone.

Turning a corner, he came face to face with yet another Sandoz warrior. The suited figure lunged towards and then
through
him, and Luc heard the warrior grunt with surprise as he slammed
into the balustrade overlooking the library floor.

Luc stood where he was and made no effort to escape. There was no point in running any more.

‘Sir!’ the Sandoz yelled, staring around at Luc. ‘It’s a data-ghost!’

Luc ignored him, stepping over to the balustrade. Cripps came darting out of a doorway, pistol in hand, and stared up at him.

‘Very clever,’ said Cripps, his voice echoing as he re-holstered his weapon. ‘But wherever you’re hiding, you must know you’re only delaying the inevitable. You
can’t escape through the Hall of Gates now.’

‘Why did you kill Maxwell?’ Luc demanded.

‘Because he’d become too dangerous for his own good,’ Cripps snapped.

Another Sandoz came running over to Cripps and whispered something in his ear. Cripps whipped around to glare at Luc, his face full of hatred.

‘Turn that goddamn flier back!’ Cripps screamed up at him.

‘And get my head blown off like Javier Maxwell did?’ Luc shook his head. ‘I don’t think so. Sevgeny Vasili knew who was coming to kill him – and I’m pretty
damn sure you’re the one who pulled the trigger.’

Luc dropped the connection before either Cripps or Eleanor could say anything else.

He found himself back in his own body, staring up at the curved hull of the flier’s cramped cockpit.

Eleanor’s betrayal had shaken him to the core. He felt more alone than he had ever felt since he’d lost everything back on Benares as a child. The nearest thing he had left to a
friend or ally was Zelia de Almeida, and he still wasn’t sure if that was better than having her for an enemy.

he sent,

Still nothing. As he’d expected.

He had gained, at most, a few minutes head-start – and even then, he still didn’t have an answer to the question he’d asked Maxwell: where the hell could he even
go
?

He was alone, on a hostile world, with no way home. All he could really do until he figured something better out was find somewhere to hide where Cripps might never find him.

Switching to the flier’s external senses, he saw Vanaheim’s sun burst over its horizon, making the oceans below looks like pools of golden fire, and remembered what Maxwell had said:
if his lattice could bypass the encryption on the books in his prison, what else could it achieve?

Still no answer.

He had the flier dip back down into the upper atmosphere, soon feeling it shudder around him as it bit into denser air. Before long a steady rumble sounded through the tiny vessel’s hull.
He’d picked his next stop at random – an archipelago of islands dense with forest, just off the coast of a minor continent, black smoke trailing from one peak that was clearly
volcanic.

Most importantly, the flier’s records indicated the archipelago was entirely uninhabited, and rarely visited. He had no idea whether Cripps or anyone else would be able to track him there,
but he was all out of any better ideas.

The flier made landing in a clearing about forty minutes later, dirt and leaves tumbling down after it as it broke through the forest canopy. The soil beneath the canopy was
filled with a half-light that filtered down from above.

Sweat prickled his skin the moment he exited the flier. Luc stumbled over to a boulder thick with moss and sat there for a few minutes, trying to will his heart to slow down and his hands to
stop shaking. The air was thick with small, buzzing things, and all he could do was hope that none of de Almeida’s surveillance mechants were amongst them.