Megan covered her mouth. It was all too horrible to have to see Bash like this.

Mmm . . . ust come, said Bash. Come. Here.

It still hasnt agreed to anything, General, Tarrant remarked quietly.

Yes, Im aware of that, Schelling snapped, then he turned back to Bash. We wont come to you unless you agree to our terms first. And if you try and hurt us again, well destroy you. Do you understand? We will destroy you utterly.

Yes, Bash replied. I understand.

And our terms? said Schelling, almost shouting now. His skin was flushed, and damp with perspiration. Will you give us what we ask for in return?

Bash ducked his chin down almost to his chest. Ye . . . mmph . . . yes. He jerked upright, his eyes rolling upwards until only the whites were visible. All of a sudden his muscles unclenched and he slumped forward, sliding off the chair.

Tarrant ducked around, catching hold of him before Bash landed on the floor.

Hes gone into cardiac arrest, shouted Tarrant. We need to get him in a medbox immediately.

Megan pushed past Schelling and Sifra, took one of Bashs arms and draped it over her shoulder, then helped Tarrant drag him back out and along the corridor towards the medboxes they had passed earlier. Tarrant held on to him while she cracked the lid of one of them open, then they both lifted him inside before closing it again.

Dear God, said Schelling, stepping up beside them. I have never in all my days seen anything like that before.

Sifra arrived at that same moment. Nor me either. The damn things never talked to us directly before.

Schelling turned to Megan. Youve just proven your worth, Miss Jacinth, he said. If I hadnt seen that with my own eyes, I wouldnt ever have believed it.

Megan nodded wordlessly, feeling too tired to care what he wanted to say.

Its all over, she realized; everything she had fought for. She had managed to escape from these people, then all too easily walked back into their arms. Perhaps, she thought, she deserved nothing better than whatever fate waited for her now at Schellings hands.

Before long the guards returned to lead her back out and across the courtyard, the bioluminescent algae clinging to the roof of the cavern still shining down on them. It felt wrong, somehow, to witness such beauty under such dreadful circumstances.

Megans despair only increased as they locked her inside a windowless room. Despite her fatigue it took her a long time to fall asleep, and when she finally did, curled up in a foetal position on the floor, she dreamed of that moment she had been reborn, on an examination table, over twenty years before.

TWENTY-FIVE

Megan

2742 (twenty-one years before)