Pelter was not good at waiting. He sat in a form chair by the window of his room and stared at the storm. It was like staring into a deep green fish-tank. He accessed the local server to see what he could find out about this weather that the people here so readily accepted. As with any aug, the information scrolled up on his visual cortex. It was like having a third eye directed at a computer screen, and it took some getting used to. The background of this screen, unlike for other augs, was now a vast wall tegulated with hand-sized scales.

The information he was viewing was not what he wanted. He did not want to know how many thousands of litres were hitting the ground every second, nor did he want to know about the giant fire far to the south which was feeding the weather system. With a thought he initiated one of the aug’s search engines, and, with another thought, primed it and sent it on its way. The information he wanted clicked up: a few numbers on a white background. Two hours, then. He closed off the link to the server and began to disconnect from the aug.

If you are gridlinked, the information is downloaded directly into your mind.

‘Who said that?’

No need to speak out loud, Arian. I can hear your thoughts.

‘Dragon,’ Pelter said. He did not want to just think what he had to say; that was too intimate.

Yes.

‘I’ve been waiting for this. Is he still on Samarkand?’

He is, but that is not where you must go.

‘I go where I choose.’

Hubris is at Samarkand. Do you think you could avoid being detected?

Pelter crushed the rage that rose up inside him. The storm—the green beyond the window—was taking on shape. It now had scales.

‘What would you suggest then?’

I will tell you where you can wait for him. Where, when the time is right, you may kill him.

‘When the time is right?’

I too have a purpose.

Somewhere a pterosaur head was speaking against red light. The smell of cloves, so strong it made Pelter wince, invaded his room. Behind him he heard Mr. Crane move.

‘Your purpose is to see him dead?’

Of course.

The hesitation was fractional, but Pelter was too close to miss it. Almost instinctively he activated Sylac’s aug and his connection to Crane. Something had been touching that connection. He knew it just as someone knows when a thief has been in their private residence. The scales before him, he now realized, were the other augs, close and intimately linked.

‘Where should I wait?’

Again that hesitation. Viridian. Ian Cormac will come, eventually, to Viridian. You will wait for him there.

‘Thank you. Do you know what he will be doing there?’

He will be going to kill someone.

‘Who?’