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Chapters (50)
  1. Cover
  2. MARAUDER
  3. HISTORICAL ARCHIVES SUBSECTION C/5 category ALPHA
  4. ONE
  5. TWO
  6. THREE
  7. FOUR
  8. FIVE
  9. SIX
  10. SEVEN
  11. EIGHT
  12. NINE
  13. TEN
  14. ELEVEN
  15. TWELVE
  16. THIRTEEN
  17. FOURTEEN
  18. FIFTEEN
  19. SIXTEEN
  20. SEVENTEEN
  21. EIGHTEEN
  22. NINETEEN
  23. TWENTY
  24. TWENTY-ONE
  25. TWENTY-TWO
  26. TWENTY-THREE
  27. TWENTY-FOUR
  28. TWENTY-FIVE
  29. TWENTY-SIX
  30. TWENTY-SEVEN
  31. TWENTY-EIGHT
  32. TWENTY-NINE
  33. THIRTY
  34. THIRTY-ONE
  35. THIRTY-TWO
  36. THIRTY-THREE
  37. THIRTY-FOUR
  38. THIRTY-FIVE
  39. THIRTY-SIX
  40. THIRTY-SEVEN
  41. THIRTY-EIGHT
  42. THIRTY-NINE
  43. FORTY
  44. FORTY-ONE
  45. EPILOGUE
  46. TIME LINE
  47. SHOAL TRILOGY
  48. EVENTS FOLLOWING EMPIRE OF LIGHT AND PRECEDING MARAUDER
  49. Acknowledgements
  50. Also by Gary Gibson

A second drone now overtook her, dropping in height as it slowed and turned back towards her. Lenses suspended beneath its body zeroed in on her face. She raised her rifle again.

Before she could take aim and fire, something hit her hard in the back, and sent her crashing to all fours. She rolled onto her side and saw that a third drone had come up on her from behind. Vortexes of dust went spinning up from the ground beneath where the two drones now hovered, stationary.

Her breath rasping harshly, the back of one shoulder icy-cold and numb where something had struck it, she listened helplessly to the sound of heavy treads crunching over icy soil as a truck pulled up nearby. She heard its doors opening and slamming shut, followed by the sound of footsteps coming closer.

A shadow fell across her, and Megan looked up into the familiar face of Gregor Tarrant, only partly hidden behind a breather mask.

I used to dream of a day like this, he began, his voice strangely distorted. I used to think about all the ways I could kill you. But now I think I just feel sorry for you. Megan, what the hell are you doing all the way out here?

Fuck you, she rasped. I left you for dead. You should have stayed that way.

She glanced past him, towards the truck, where two men, both clearly Freeholders, had also disembarked. They stood on either side of a girl, in her early twenties perhaps, her eyes wide and visibly frightened above her breather mask. From the way the two men held her, she was clearly a prisoner of some kind. The tufts of roughly cut hair sticking out from her scalp could not conceal the fact that she was also a machine-head. Megan instantly tried to link to her but found that she couldnt.

There was something hauntingly familiar about the girl, and after a moment it hit her. She had seen the girls face regularly via the Tabernacles news feeds. Here in front of her stood the Speaker-Elect of the Demarchy of Uchida . . .

Just as Megan herself had once been, until she found a way to escape.

TWENTY-THREE

Megan

The two Freeholders left the other girl in Tarrants care while they hauled Megan up from the ground, before carrying her into the back of another truck that pulled up next to the first. They strapped her into a seat in the rear and climbed into the front cabin.

The truck reversed, then turned to rejoin the rest of the convoy, which had meanwhile come to a halt. Every time the vehicle bumped over a rock, a spike of agony shot through Megans injured shoulder.

Seeing Tarrant again was one thing. Seeing him in the company of the supposedly deceased Speaker-Elect was something she was having trouble either processing or understanding.