‘I’ll take it from here, Sergeant,’ a new voice broke in. Idris stopped shouting, because it sounded familiar.
‘Who the hell are you?’ the lead soldier demanded.
The newcomer was standing behind his chair, and Idris caught a flash of a holographic ID. ‘Intervention Board,’ the man said. ‘We’re intervening.’
The soldiers were all suddenly quite still. ‘Sir, we have orders . . .’
‘Mordant House has orders too. We’re requisitioning him.’
‘Sir—’
‘Let’s get out of the way and let these people board, shall we?’
When the soldier obeyed, Idris knew he wasn’t going to end up on the Sepulchrave after all. Mordant House was the bogeyman of the Colonies. Mordant House knew all your secrets. It protected the Human Sphere against all threats, and good luck if that threat was you.
‘You need that chair, or can you walk?’ and at last Idris shifted around enough to recognize the narrow, suspicious face of Havaer Mundy.
‘If you take my arm, I can walk.’
‘Fine.’ Mundy helped him up. The soldiers looked daggers but none of them would challenge Mordant House.
‘So,’ Idris said, as Mundy helped him out of the lounge, against a tide of panicked refugees. ‘You have some Mordant House ship or something? That can get me out there?’ Please don’t tell me I’m just trading one kidnapping for another.
His heart sank when Mundy said, ‘Not exactly,’ but at least they were leaving the Sepulchrave far behind, as they moved around the orbital ring towards the shabbier docks. They had to jostle and fight through every corridor, but Mundy seemed to have a way of finding every gap in the current to get ahead. Idris just let himself be tugged along. The man’s way with crowds was like navigating unspace to the uninitiated – something magical and mysterious. They were well into the docking band that dealt with freight now, though the only freight shipping here was more people. And all the while the Architect was getting closer.
‘Agent Mundy,’ he said at last. ‘Where are we going?’
‘Where’d you think?’
‘I’m not going to be some spook asset.’ Idris pulled back trying to resist. He might as well fight gravity; Mundy’s long-boned frame bought him a lot of leverage. ‘I refuse to be some black ops sneak-pilot for your assassins.’
Mundy stopped. ‘“Black ops sneak-pilot”？’ he queried. ‘That’s a job description where you come from, is it?’
‘I’m not—’
‘Telemmier. I am risking a great deal on my assessment of you – not least my job. So just shut your yap and come with me, would you? Because right now I am attracting all the bad kind of paperwork. And I am just desperate to get started on the last report of my career, after I drop you off.’ He gave Idris’s arm a final yank, hit a door release with his elbow and they were standing in a familiar dock. And there was the Vulture God.
Idris looked from the ship to Mundy and back. Solace was heading towards them, her eyes on the Mordant House man.
‘I didn’t think you’d do it,’ she said.
‘Well, I reckon you and I are both exceeding our orders today,’ Mundy replied. ‘You’re shipping out with them, right?’
‘You want a berth?’
He laughed harshly. ‘That would just about put the nail in the coffin, wouldn’t it? No, I’ll stay here and clean up the mess I made. Telemmier.’
Idris jumped. ‘What?’
‘I met you.’
‘What?’
‘I sat down with you, remember? We had a chat, back before the Harvest turned up and we had to part ways. Right now, I am really hoping I’m as good a judge of character as I want to be. You want a ship, here’s your ship. If you can talk them into it. I’ve also got you departure clearance, at least until someone clocks on and overrules me. Go use it.’ Then the man was retreating, seeming to shift crabwise out of the hangar before vanishing. Because Mordant House never did anything in a straightforward way.
Idris turned to the ship, the unlovely, oft-repaired scavenger-hauler that was the Vulture God. The drone bay hatch was open, but he couldn’t see any of the crew.
‘I know you all heard that,’ he called. ‘Well?’
‘Okay, are we going or not?’ Olli’s voice boomed from the speakers. ‘Because I just spent ten minutes getting us all ready to leave. Just get your ass on board. Her too.’