‘Gobleka, Sark’s burning out,’ said Davinch. ‘He’s still exhausted from the last weaving. He needs time to recover. And if you start him up, and use his power, we don’t know how many more constructs we’ll get out of him. We may not meet our quota. Or at the very least, we could fall months behind.’

Gobleka walked across the platform until he was nose-to-nose with the tall, tattooed man. Davinch pulled back a little.

‘Yes,’ said Gobleka. ‘Chase will be furious. Imagine how much more furious she’ll be if we allow Eisenhorn to shut this place down? She’d bring us back from the dead just to kill us all over again. Protecting this place is our first responsibility. The Cognitae cannot lose the Loom. It’s not an option. He must be found and finished before he can do any damage to it. So we’ve got to use Sark.’

Davinch nodded reluctantly.

‘Besides,’ Gobleka added. ‘The other one’s out there. What’s her name?’

‘Betancore,’ said Blayg.

‘Right. She needs to be wiped too. We can’t risk any word of this getting off-world. So, Sark can handle that as well. Blayg, get the kit.’

The portly man nodded and hurried off the gantry to a lower platform. Gobleka put his assault weapon down on the deck and went over to the cage. He crouched down.

‘Magos?’ he called softly. ‘Draven? You stay calm now, you hear me?’

The man in the cage moaned and curled up in a tight ball. Gobleka put his hand on the frame of the cage door and said a single word that made Davinch cringe.

The cage door swung open. Sark whined and curled up even tighter.

Blayg returned, carrying a medicae pack. He opened the case, prepped an injector and handed it to Gobleka.

‘Full dose?’ asked Gobleka.

Blayg nodded.

Gobleka crawled into the cage. Sark shrank back from him, becoming agitated. Gobleka grabbed him, pinned him with one arm and jabbed the injector into the meat of his left buttock. Sark squealed.

Gobleka let him go, slid out of the cage and sealed it again with an un-word. Sark began to twitch, and then the twitching grew to a violent thrashing. He contorted and twisted, veins bulging, his limbs spasming.

‘Hell’s teeth,’ murmured Davinch as he watched. ‘It takes him longer to come back every time.’

‘There will come a time when he won’t come back at all,’ said Blayg.

‘Then we’ll find a replacement,’ said Gobleka. ‘We always knew that day would come…’

His voice trailed off.

‘What?’ asked Blayg.

‘The old bastard,’ said Gobleka.

Davinch and Blayg turned in terror, expecting to see Eisenhorn behind them.

‘Idiots,’ Gobleka laughed. ‘Think about it. Think about it, we could turn this mess into a huge victory. Turn it right around. End the threat of Eisenhorn and replace the one failing component of this system.’

‘Eisenhorn?’ asked Blayg.