‘You can come if you wish. But if we have to run, I won’t wait for you.’ Cormac turned away. Mika watched this exchange, then suddenly spoke up.

‘I’m coming as well,’ she said.

‘If you like,’ said Cormac, then turned at the sound of Aiden winding the cable in at high speed. The cable drew taut and Aiden’s winding slowed. The winch, Cormac knew, had been attached to an electric motor on the front of the carrier. Strapped to the tree there was no motor to run it, and there was not a man here capable of turning the hastily fabricated handle. They all watched in silence as Aiden got the carrier up and teetering on its corner. When it crashed down level, Cormac immediately headed over to it. Shortly he returned, carrying a bulky rucksack.

‘We’re going now,’ he said, and nodded towards Mika’s AGC. The three fell in with him as he strode towards it.

In a moment they were airborne and gone.

‘Goodbye,’ said the sergeant, with a complete lack of sincerity. A few days before he had been eager for the chance of action. Now he just wanted to reach a safe retirement.

Cormac checked his watch after he had set the cruise-control on the AGC. ‘Should be there in under an hour. Aiden, what are the precise co-ordinates of where the Maker went to ground?’ Aiden told him, and Cormac flipped a map-screen from the console and checked them. ‘Seems there is a cave mouth there. I’ll be going in to set the CTDs. I am going alone. You, Thorn, are not capable at present, and I do not see why Mika should be exposed to the danger.’

Aiden said, ‘But I see no reason why I should not accompany you.’

‘You would not—and that is because you’re not in possession of all the facts. You’ll stay with the AGC. That’s a direct order.’

There was no answer to that, so none was given.

Fifty minutes of flying brought them to a position directly above the given co-ordinates. Cormac brought the car down to twenty metres above ground level, then looked down at the cave mouth. It was a ragged rent in the side of a mountain, but easily accessible. He landed the vehicle a short distance away.

Before he left the car, Cormac reached back and said, ‘Give me your thermal scanner, Aiden.’