'What about the baby?

'We took Erik and Imelda back to our field headquarters. She was pregnant, about two weeks gone as I recall, and it was infected.

'I thought you couldn't tell.

Paul looked straight ahead at the horizon. 'There are ways you can find out. You have to test the cells directly.

'Oh, Ozzie, Corrie-Lyn breathed, her face had paled.

'We took it out of her and checked. No kind of embryo can survive that kind of test. Fortunately we were right this time, it was one of them.

'You're not human, no matter what you claim.

Aaron gave her a furious look. She started to say something then threw her hands up in disgust and walked away.

'Sorry about that, Aaron said. 'What happened?

'Standard procedure in cases when the girl knows she's pregnant, which Imelda did. We can't wipe weeks from their memories, that would be detectable. So we took another ova from her and fertilized it with Erik's contribution, and implanted. Then they both got a memory wipe for the evening they spent with us. Next morning they wake up with a bad hangover, and can't remember what they did. Typical teenage morning after.

'Did it go wrong, then?

'No, son, everything worked perfectly. Nine months later they had a lovely little girl. A normal one.

'So how was Inigo conceived?

'Imelda had a sister.

'Sabine.

'Yes. They were twins. Identical twins.

'Ah. I think this is starting to make sense.

'I should have realized. It's every teenage boy's ultimate fantasy; plenty of men, too.

'He slept with both of them.

'Yes. Him and the angel. You just confirmed that for me. Finally. Part of the Protectorate's whole clean-up procedure is to review the angel's memories, to find out who it has contaminated. Hacking into its brain is a terrible, terrible thing, one of the greatest abuses of medical technology possible. It takes days to break the protection which biononics provide for the neurones. I used to do it for the team, may God forgive me, but it was necessary. There's no other way of discovering what those devil-spawned monsters have been up to. It's not an exact science, now or then. Minds are not tidy little repositories like a memory kube. I had to merge my mind with its and endure its vile slippery thoughts inside my own skull. When I reviewed its recent memories I actually experienced coupling with Imelda. He closed his eyes, clearly pained by the fraudulent memory. 'Her face was inches from me. She tasted so… sweet. But, now, I don't suppose it was all her. Rather, the memories weren't just of her. I couldn't tell the difference between the girls. Damnit, at the time I didn't know there was a difference I should be searching for.

'So Inigo was born as part of a radical Higher infiltration plan.

'Yes. We were shocked when we found out Sabine was pregnant, but that was just before she was due. There were a lot of arguments within my team about what we should do.

'Snatch the baby and test it.

'That was one option. The mild one. Paul looked over at Corrie-Lyn who was sitting on a low concrete wall outside one of the barns. 'But intervention becomes progressively difficult as time winds away, especially once the child is born. We're not… There's a difference between abortion and infanticide — to me, anyway. And once it was born it has a legal right of residency. Even if we took it away from the mother and shipped it back to the Central Worlds, they'd just send it right back. Legally, it's a mess. Which is why the Protectorate was formed, to stop the whole nightmare scenario before it gets politically complicated.

'So what did you do?

'I never really believed the girls having a kid two weeks apart was coincidence. In the event, we settled for observation. If Inigo was infected he'd give himself away eventually, they all do.

'But he didn't.

'No. We monitored him off and on for over twenty-five years. He never put a foot wrong. He was a straight down the line normal human. School. University. Girlfriends. Not exceptionally sporting. Got injured when he played football. Had to get a job. Kept out of local politics. Signed up with a rejuve finance company. When he took aerosols he got high. Took a boring academic position in the state university cosmology department. There was nothing to indicate he had biononics. Right up until you arrived today I'd still have said he most probably didn't. I had come to accept that his birth maybe was coincidence after all. Believe me, son, if we'd confirmed it when he reached legal age we would have made a quiet ultimatum.

'Leave or die.

'Yes. There's no other way you can treat them?

'Then he did leave, didn't he? All the way to Centurion Station.

'Yes. And what a goddamned pitiful mess that's turned into. Half the aliens in the galaxy want to shoot us out of space. Who can blame them.

'It's only the Ocisen Empire.

'You mean they're the only ones who have declared themselves. Don't tell me you think the others are just going to sit back and let us wreck the very stars themselves.

'Who knows? If I can find him maybe we can put a stop to the whole Pilgrimage.

'I should have killed him in the womb when I had the chance.

'Whatever he is, he's not Higher.

'He might not be polluted with their culture, yet, but it will come to him eventually.

'Apparently not. He found an alternative to a route you believed was set in stone. His destiny is inside the Void, not with ANA.

Paul shrugged. 'Whichever one it is, it's not a human destiny.

'Our destiny is what we decide to make it. Free choice, remember.

'You're wrong, son. I see you believe in yourself, and I wish you well in that. But you're wrong.

'Okay, we'll just differ on that one. What happened to Erik?

'Bodyloss. Paul caught Aaron's expression. 'Not us, it was a genuine accident. He was working hard to support both girls. A decent lad, I guess. The farmer he was helping out didn't do very good maintenance. The agribot chewed him up something bad. This was maybe six months after the kids were born. His insurance was all paid up, but he'd only just had his memorycell fitted. It's always the same in cases like that. The new body only has a few months of memories, which is never enough to install a decent level of personality. In his re-life state he was very childlike, ironically because his entire childhood was what he lacked. There was no real emotional connection with the sisters and his two children. Not immediately. Imelda worked hard at correcting that. She did well. They went off together. Sabine and little Inigo got left behind. It kicked off a huge family row. The sisters never really spoke after that.

'Which is why Aunt Imelda got written out of his official history.

'That's pretty much it. Yes.

'I've never met a more despicable human, Corrie-Lyn said as the regrav capsule lifted from the ranch. 'And I include our dear Cleric Conservator in that statement.

'Did you ever meet a Higher angel?

'No.

'Well then.

'That's it? she shouted angrily. 'That's your justification?

'I'm not trying to justify anything. All I'm doing is pointing out that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. What he used to do was part of the era.

'He's a psychopath. Fuck knows how many babies he's killed. He belongs in suspension for the rest of eternity.

'Dead, you mean.

'Whatever! she snapped, and slumped down into the cushioning. Her delicate features set in a furious sulk.

'I told you to leave the talking to me.

'Shut the fuck up.

'Well at least he helped us.

'How?

'There now you see, if you hadn't gone stomping off in a huff…

'Screw you. I bet you were Protectorate before the memory wipe. It certainly fits.

'No.