Gabrielle found Megan standing over the crumpled form of an elderly Freeholder with a scarred face and a smouldering hole in his chest that still flickered with flames. The smell of cooked flesh made her gag, so she hurriedly reached for her breather mask and pulled it back on.

There was another man in the room, tall, dark-skinned and emaciated. He was seated in a high-backed chair surrounded by complicated-looking equipment, and merely stared past them with an unfocused gaze.

Megans breath shuddered as she slung the rifle back over her shoulder. I didnt like doing that, she muttered.

Why? asked Gabrielle.

He fixed my shoulder. Megan stepped towards the man in the chair. Gabrielle wondered if he was mentally impaired or perhaps paralysed.

Cmon, Bash, said Megan, undoing the straps holding him in the chair. She slid one hand behind him, and the other under his arm, and tried to get him to stand, grunting with the effort. After a few seconds he slowly stood up, still demonstrating no apparent awareness that they were even there.

Gabrielles mouth flopped open. Thats Bash? she exclaimed. Whats wrong with him?

Megan regarded her wearily. Something thats going to take a really long time to explain.

But he spoke to me . . . in my head.

Then you might be interested to know, said Megan, that, apart from one recent occasion thats going to give me nightmares for the rest of my life, he hasnt said one damn word to anyone else in well over a decade.

It took Gabrielle several moments to absorb this. But . . .

You know what, said Megan, looking over at her, how about we cut the fucking questions until we get out of here? And you can start to help by getting hold of his other arm.

Gabrielle did as instructed and, not without some difficulty, they steered him out of the room and into the main cavern.

Those trucks over there, Megan panted, lets see if one of thems working.

Gabrielle pulled her breather mask off again, and waited beside Bash while Megan investigated the cabins of three separate trucks in turn before finding one that seemed to her satisfaction. She waved down to Gabrielle from the drivers window, and Gabrielle guided Bash aboard the rear compartment. She was careful not to look anywhere near the dead guards body lying close by.

Megan climbed through to the rear and helped her get Bash strapped into one of the compartments benches. A baby, thought Gabrielle, would be less helpless. It seemed impossible that the voice she had heard so warm, so certain could possibly have originated from this vacant-eyed and shambling shell of a man. Megan found a packet of disposable breather masks and strapped one over Bashs face before taking another for herself. Gabrielle followed suit, then pulled her own mask back on.

Megan paused as Gabrielle followed her through the connecting hatch to the main cabin. Maybe you should ride in the back with Bash.