The embarkation lounge was eerily empty for a place so often busy. The people who had been here previously were well away now, and no doubt swearing about antimatter-containment fields and incompetent AIs. Cormac ran over to a bank of screens, speaking into his comunit all the while.

‘Viridian, can you get it up on there? I want to see this.’

‘I have surveillance drones two kilometres above the area.’

The screen flicked to a view down onto the Thuriot mountains.

‘The explosions will be well contained. There may be very little evidence of them. Two minutes and counting.’

And with that a voice, softer than that of the AI, began to read off the seconds.

‘One-nineteen, one-eighteen, one-seventeen . . .’

‘When this hits,’ said Cormac, ‘we run for runcible B5, which is open right now to the stage-one runcible on Samarkand.’

Thorn asked, ‘Will the detonations be enough to get it running? I mean . . . can we be sure it will run for the runcibles?’

‘We can’t be sure. If it doesn’t run this time, we come back with greater force and do the same again.’

‘I still don’t see how we—’

‘Hadn’t you better get to the runcible now, Thorn? I don’t want you dragging behind,’ said Cormac, and turned and eyed the soldier coldly. Thorn returned that hard gaze for a moment, then bowed his head and moved away. Aiden went with him.

Cormac turned his attention to the dracoman. ‘Nonscar, go with them.’

The dracoman moved away also.

‘—eighty . . . seventy-nine . . . seventy-eight.’

While Cormac watched the screen, Mika studied him surreptitiously. The questions Thorn had been asking were pertinent in the extreme. She sensed the reason that Cormac had not answered them properly was, not because he could not, but simply because he did not want to. He knew what he was doing; that, she felt, was enough.

‘Bringing the drone in lower,’ said Viridian.

The view rapidly changed to one where trees and mountainsides became distinguishable. Mika was sure she was now seeing the same area they had recently quit, one mountainside appeared to be the one with the cave mouth in it.

‘—twenty-one . . . twenty . . . nineteen . . . eighteen . . .’

Mika could see the tension building in Cormac’s muscles. What was he seeing? What was it he wanted to see?

The seconds counted themselves out. The probe appeared to bob, but it was the mountains that shook. Dust and debris hazed everything for a moment, and then white fire jetted from the flank of one mountain, pinpointing the position of the cave mouth. Cormac glanced at the time display in one corner of the screen.

‘Come on . . .’

More seconds dragged past. Then suddenly part of the mountain blew away and the incandescent Maker surfaced, jetting fire in every direction. Trees exploded into burning flinders and boulders were blown to dust. The screen whited out.

‘Probe destroyed,’ explained Viridian. ‘I am withdrawing all other probes.’

Mika saw a fleeting quirk of a smile cross Cormac’s face.