The voice and the presence faded at the same moment that a sliver of knowledge suddenly materialized in the back of Gabrielles mind, as if it had always been there. Somehow she knew where to find Megan whoever she was.

An increasing sense of excitement gripped her. Was this the same woman she had seen knocked down by a drone? She wanted to know who this person was, and how she had so badly disturbed Tarrant. Gabrielle had an intuition that the woman might even be able to answer some of her questions about the man she had once known as Karl Petrova.

She found herself at the mouth of a cavern, its walls speckled with green and blue light emanating from some kind of fungi. Towards the centre of the cavern lay clustered a number of buildings. Megan, she felt sure, was inside one of them.

Gabrielle walked as quietly and quickly as she could towards them, keeping a watchful eye out. On her right tarpaulin-covered stacks of machinery rose far above her head, while on her left stood a row of partially disembowelled trucks.

She heard the sound of footsteps, reverberating from the cavern ceiling, and approaching from somewhere on the other side of the stacks. She crept on towards the last truck in the row, before crouching in the narrow space between one of its treads and the cavern wall.

The footsteps came to a halt. Control, said a mans voice, the security nets still down. Any idea when itll be back up?

She waited and listened.

Well, if its localized, said the same man after a pause, Ill take a look and see if I can figure something out from this end.

Gabrielle hardly dared breathe. He sounded as if he was just right around the other side of the truck.

Okay, he said, after another pause. Soon as Ive checked that out, Ill check on the girl Tarrant brought in. Sound good?

The man again fell silent. After a minute, Gabrielle risked a glance around the rear of the truck.

She saw the back of a mans head. He was wearing the familiar grey-and-white fatigues she had seen on other Freeholders. He had opened up a virtual console, most of it taken up by what looked like a map of the caverns. He had a rifle over one shoulder, and various tools arranged in sheaths on a multi-pocketed waistcoat.

If he was on his way to check up on her, she might have only a couple of minutes before he raised the alert.

A crowbar lay on the ground next to the truck, along with some oily rags and a pile of what looked like spare parts. She reached down and picked the crowbar up.

One end of it accidentally banged against the side of the truck, the sound immediately echoing across the cavern.

She froze with one hand over her mouth, her heart beating like thunder.