The scream was horrible. Cormac saw two shadows grappling. One shadow folded the other to the ground. He was sure he could hear bones breaking.

‘Only one left, I take it,’ said Cormac acidly.

‘Up and running,’ said Aiden. ‘Dracoman’s after him. You want me to get him?’

‘Leave it,’ said Cormac, and let out a tight breath. He looked over the wall at the spirals of smoke. Over to his right someone was talking in a low monotone. To his left there was a sudden stuttering of pulse-gun fire. He swore and dropped back down.

‘I said leave it,’ he said into his comunit.

‘Something in the trees,’ came Goff’s reply.

‘Aiden, you getting anything?’

‘Nothing now, but there was a trace just then. Moved too fast to be a bird,’ the Golem replied.

‘Surveillance drone?’

‘Possible.’

‘Any other traces?’

‘Nothing.’

On that last word the second dracoman released Cormac’s arm. He pulled away, dropped his comunit in his top pocket, and then turned on the dracoman.

‘Do that again and I cut your fucking hand off,’ he said.

The dracoman showed its teeth. It could have been a smile.

Cormac left it and went to find out who had died.

* * *

Two of the regulars were dead. Seeker bullets had ripped through their body armour and the pressure vessels they contained had exploded with messy results. Cormac was told one of them was the soldier Cheng. Cormac had what remained of the men scooped up and put in body-bags, then shallow-buried at the perimeter of the camp. The three recoverable bodies—the men the dracoman had killed—were brought in and laid out. Cormac recognized none of them. He turned to Stanton, just behind whom stood Thorn and Sergeant Arn.

‘Locally hired,’ he said.

‘Yes, but Pelter has four you know with him,’ Stanton replied.

Cormac looked at him questioningly.

Stanton went on. ‘Corlackis and his brother, Svent and Dusache.’

‘When will they come in? Soon?’

‘No, Pelter won’t want it over that quickly.’

Cormac nodded, then looked at the sergeant. ‘Take him into the carrier, strip-search him, then tie him up.’

The sergeant obeyed with a kind of grim relish. Cormac wondered if he expected entertainment in repayment for the deaths of his two men. He would be disappointed. He noticed that Stanton went without protest. The man seemed broken, grieving. He’d have to get the full story from him later. Right now he wanted everything organized, precise. Much as he was inclined to believe what Stanton had told him, he still was not prepared to relax defences here. With Thorn at his back he walked towards Aiden, who was crouching by the wreckage of what had been a tree before Thorn’s attentions.

‘That dracoman back yet?’ he asked.

Aiden glanced up and said, ‘No, but we have an AGC coming in directly.’

‘Scatter!’