‘Cleared,’ came a machine-distorted voice from somewhere out of sight.

‘All you need to do is trust…’

Vek could see Noon and Mori’s faces in his mind, more clear than the red shadows that moved close.

‘This one is alive,’ said a voice from close by. Vek suddenly realised how quiet everything had become. The lights still blinked, but there were no alarms, no shouts…

‘Just trust?’ he had asked. ‘That does not seem like much.’

‘It is everything,’ she had said. ‘It is everything, my love.’

He was looking up into a black eye-slot set into a crimson-lacquered helm.

‘The Emperor…’ he managed, hearing the gurgle and rasp in his own words. The barrel of the gun eclipsed the sight of the room. He could see the scorching inside its muzzle. ‘The Emperor p–’

Mersadie saw the gunfire from around the corner. She slowed, crouching low against the wall. She gripped the gun tight. Rounds were whipping past, shot pellets sparking off pipes and grates. She was breathing hard. A bitter taste filled her mouth and nose. She looked back at the way she had come. Blast doors had sealed behind her. Could she open them? If she could, where would she go? What about Nilus? Where was the Navigator?

A child’s cry jerked her head up. Another blast of shot. Another cry. The thought of going back vanished. Mersadie snatched a look around the corner.

The next door was only twenty paces away. It was a small, ovoid opening. The two children crouched behind a projecting pipe halfway between Mersadie and the door. Mori hugged her brother close as a shot sparked off the wall above their heads. Aksinya was beside the open door, pistols in hand, shooting through the hatch as guns barked from the dark beyond. She crouched back as a fresh squall of shot ripped up the corridor. Mersadie caught her eye, and thought she saw a curse form on the bodyguard’s lips. There was a deeper boom from beyond the open hatch and a bolt-round ripped down the corridor and exploded on the wall opposite the corner. Mersadie saw the gleam of red armour in the muzzle flash just before she ducked back. There were figures advancing on the other side of the hatch from Aksinya. The bodyguard and the children were trapped.

‘Mersadie!’ shouted Aksinya.

‘I hear you,’ she shouted back. Another bolt burned down the corridor. Mersadie heard the chattering bark of Aksinya’s pistols.

‘Your shuttle,’ shouted the bodyguard. ‘It’s two decks down. Key command override for the launch doors is “Juno”.’

‘I understand,’ Mersadie shouted back. And she did.

‘Get the children and then get to the shuttle.’

Mersadie nodded. All thoughts of Nilus, of greater purposes and of final ends had become very distant. A high ringing was rising in her head and ears. Her limbs were suddenly shaking. Aksinya held her gaze for a heartbeat more.