The ground was now far enough below them for many small details to be lost, not that there was much diverse detail over this wilderness. The open plains receded underneath them, changing from greenish blue pocked by great splashes of red to a sudden band of grey stone, then cerulean ocean. Jarvellis adjusted a sub-screen to show the continent receding behind them like a thick blanket of mould skimmed back off the oceanic surface. The ship was now howling and shuddering constantly, and by the way she was white-knuckling the joystick Cormac suspected that Jarvellis did not consider this at all a good sign.

"Do you have stress readouts for this craft's superstructure?" asked Cormac.

"Yes, I do," admitted Jarvellis. "But I'm not looking at them."

Soon they were puncturing cloud as they flew on into night. Looking at the screen with a view all across Lyric II, he observed ice building up and flaking away in glittering contrails.

"Are we leaving a vapour trail?" he asked her.

"No, the exhaust is too hot. Our only problem right now is the ionic trail and, as you said, we just have to hope he doesn't spot that."

"Other problems?" Cormac persisted.

"Proximity lasers online," the AI chose that moment to announce.

"That problem," Jarvellis replied. "Your Dragon creature did a fine job of destroying the laser arrays. Shame it left the debris up here as well. I've set our course to avoid the worst of it, otherwise I'll dodge the larger fragments whilst Lyric here vaporizes the smaller ones."

"But surely you'll be able to do all that inside the 'ware field?" Cormac pointed out.

Stanton interjected, "Sure they'll get vaporized inside the 'ware field, but that vapour won't stay inside the field for long. You were worried about a moisture vapour trail lower down. Now you can worry about a metallic vapour trail up here."

Cloud banks lay below them like a mountain range of crystal sulphur and snow, with jade ocean glimpsed far below through deep crevasses. Above this they hurtled further into space that could never get completely dark because of the Braemar moons suspended like lanterns, and behind them, the shining glass sculpture of the distant nebula. Cormac registered U-chargers powering up then on a subscreen and observed vapour explosions as the ship's lasers obliterated obstacles that were too small to be visible but large enough to punch holes through the hull. Operating the steering thrusters, Jarvellis took the ship swaying to one side to pass a lump of wreckage resembling half a piano made of polished aluminium. For a short while the lasers continued operating at full capacity, though not well enough, for they could hear the sharp bullet-cracks of impacts.

"Lyric, damage?" Jarvellis spat, when these impacts finally ceased.

"Four micropunctures, now sealed. One large hole in the hydraulic cylinder for landing foot two. I've shut off the hydraulic fluid supply to it, but cannot repair. We need to space dock for that," the AI explained.

"Be glad of the chance," Jarvellis muttered, glancing at Cormac.

He was observing the display that noted their speed in kilometres per hour. Now pushing twenty-five thousand, he saw that they had achieved escape velocity, and that now the arc of the horizon was dropping below them.

Stanton confirmed this for them by asking, "What now, Agent? What do we do now?"

"Depending on the circumstances, it would take about an hour for the underspace disturbance created by a ship this size to disperse." He turned to Jarvellis. "Get the Occam up on the main screen, will you."

Jarvellis did as requested, and soon the Polity dreadnought filled the main screen, looming utterly clear now in the clarity of vacuum. For a second Cormac allowed himself misgivings: Skellor had so obviously moved far beyond anything Cormac himself could easily judge or understand, let alone manipulate.

"One hour at the present velocity will take us far enough out of the well for you to use U-space engines. You don't need greater velocity?" he asked.

"No. We have modern engines on this Lyric," Jarvellis replied tartly.

"Okay… if you use your fusion engine—"

"Fusion mode," Jarvellis interrupted. "The engines are dual-function: ionic and fusion."

"Whatever," said Cormac, irritated. "If you use fusion mode, how quickly will you be able to go under?"

"Ten minutes, maybe less. Lyric?"

The AI replied, "Seven minutes and thirty seconds… mark."

"Use fusion," said Cormac, "for the last few seconds — and in those last few seconds I want you to send a message for me as well."

"Just say it, and Lyric will record it," Jarvellis told him.

Cormac cleared his throat and addressed the image on the screen. "Skellor, it seems you missed me again, but I guess mistakes are to be expected from an intelligence stretched so far beyond its capacity. Now I want to make you an offer: come and work with the Polity on studying the technology you now control. All previous misdemeanours can be forgotten, since you know that Polity AIs do not countenance vengeance, and in exchange for what you now possess, you could have almost anything you ask for." Cormac glanced round at Stanton, who seemed set to explode. He continued, "I do understand that you will not want to compromise your safety. When I arrive, I'll send a message to that effect into the Polity, and you can thenceforth communicate with ECS yourself and make the right arrangements. Please give this offer serious consideration. Message ends."

"Are you out of your fucking mind?" Stanton growled.

"Trust me," said Cormac, then smiled at the rustling of material that told him Stanton had just drawn his weapon. He went on, "What did I just say to him?"

"You offered him anything he wants," said Stanton.

"I also said 'When I arrive, I'll send a message to the Polity', so what do you think he'll work out from that?"

Stanton thought for a moment then said, "He'll know you're not going right into Polity space."

"Precisely, so he'll think he still has a chance of silencing me," said Cormac. "And when he moves to pick up our trail, and tries to follow us through U-space, he'll see that this is true."

"You haven't told me our destination yet," said Jarvellis.

Cormac now told her.

So engrossed had Skellor been in the underground battle that he felt a surge of panic as in a microsecond he became aware of fusion spillover from a 'ware field. Immediately he put the relevant laser battery online, whilst experiencing huge loathing and contempt for himself. With all his available sensors he had watched out for Polity technology, and so just not expected anything else. That was his own damned chameleonware on some small ship, and it had nearly got the vessel past him. Targeting the calculated centre of the 'ware effect, he immediately became suspicious: why was he seeing fusion spillover now? It seemed almost as if the pilot of that ship wanted to be seen. Then Cormac's message arrived and Skellor screamed with rage at his own stupidity, and fired his lasers, only to see their blast igniting vapour over a fading U-space signature.

Skellor immediately engaged the Occam's fusion engines to take him out of low orbit. As he did this, he imposed self-control and re-examined the content of the man's message.

'When I arrive I'll send a message to the Polity was a provocative phrase. Skellor felt it was a ploy to get him to follow the ship to some dangerous destination on the Line. Yet there could be no trap laid there, because no one outside of this system knew anything about him. Hammering up towards the rapidly fading signature, Skellor probed and was further bewildered when he discovered what the little ship's destination was.

What did this Agent Cormac think he could achieve by leading Skellor there?