Beckia was out in Daryad Avenue, keeping watch as she browsed through a recently reopened store opposite the restaurant. Cheriton had taken up position in a lane at the back, also scanning around for any sign of other agents or some kind of trap or just something out of the ordinary. Oscar still couldn’t figure out what was going on. The gaiafield quite clearly revealed Araminta standing in the observation deck of the Lady’s Light, where she had remained for the last couple of days. Ethan and Taranse walked across the empty chamber to her and bowed in unison.

“Embarkation is complete, Dreamer,” Taranse said. He looked exhausted but supremely content, a man who’d achieved his goal in life.

“Thank you,” she said. “You have done a remarkable job.” She turned to Ethan. “Are we ready to launch?”

“Yes,” he said with open delight. “The ultradrives appear to be functional.”

“Very well. Please ask the captains to lift and set a course for the Void.”

“It will be done.”

“Is there any sign of Ilanthe?”

“No, Dreamer.”

“No matter. I’m sure she will make herself known before we reach the boundary.” She turned back to the tall strip of transparent fuselage in time to see the construction yard’s last layer of force fields deactivate. It was dawn outside. A bright yellow-gold radiance illuminated the colossal Pilgrimage ships, and she smiled at the sight of it. Then the decking trembled and the Lady’s Light slowly lifted out of its regrav suspension, rising into Ellezelin’s clear sky.

“Holy crap,” Oscar grunted. He truly had no idea what he was doing here now. In fact, he started to worry that Tomansio was right and Living Dream had broken into her mind so they could clear up any possible remaining problems. That was bollocks, he knew. Why wait until now?

His salad arrived. He gave it a dispirited look.

“Ah, life just got interesting again,” Beckia said. “Here we go.” Her link showed him a Mr. Bovey climbing out of a cab on Daryad Avenue just outside the restaurant. It was the middle-aged black-skinned one Oscar had talked to before.

“Yes! Your money is mine,” Cheriton declared. “Pay up.”

The team had been running a pool on who would actually show up at the restaurant. Oscar had put his money on the elusive cousin, Cressida.

“Anything suspicious?” Oscar asked the rest of the team. Liatris, who was flying coverage over Colwyn City in a modified capsule, said no, the area was clear of any covert activity. Back in Elvin’s Payback, Tomansio also reported a clean sweep.

The Mr. Bovey walked straight into the restaurant and sat down next to Oscar. He was wearing a conservative gray toga suit that barely shimmered, which made him look quite dignified.

Oscar’s biononics threw a small privacy cloak around the table. “Mr. Bovey,” he began in censure, which he was about to follow up with something along the lines of what’s she up to? when the man simply grinned and shook his head. “No,” he said emphatically. “That’s Mr. Bovey over there keeping an eye on you.”

Oscar twisted around. The two men eating steak and kidney pies waved solemnly. “I don’t get …”

“I’m Araminta. Araminta-two, I suppose. I borrowed one of my fiance’s bodies. This one, to be precise. I always liked this one.”

“Ungh?” Oscar grunted.

“I’m starting to go multiple. It’s an interesting lifestyle, don’t you think?” He gave Oscar a lopsided smile.

“Fuck me.”

“Quite. You said you could help?”

“Oh, shit, yes!” Oscar’s skin was actually tingling from astonishment. He couldn’t help it; he started laughing in delight. Maybe there is hope. “If you’d like to come with me …” Biononics and secondary thought routines had to regulate his neural responses, filtering down his adrenaline rush so he could concentrate properly on the mission. He had to stay focused.

Araminta-two gave him a modest shrug and stood up.

“Cover us,” Oscar told Beckia and Cheriton. “Liatris, get us out of here.”

“Way ahead of you,” Liatris said.

Oscar couldn’t remember being both elated and terrified to such an extent. If they were going to be intercepted, it would be now, after this version of Araminta was identified for what s/he was. As they walked to the door, he wanted to shove his integral force field up to full strength, activate all weapons enrichments. Keep cool. Keep calm. It’s a brilliant maneuver. No one could anticipate she’d do this.

Liatris brought the ingrav capsule flashing down directly onto the pavement outside the restaurant, earning several angry glances from pedestrians who had to dodge out of the way. The door opened, and Oscar virtually shoved Araminta-two inside. Then they were rising fast, already curving toward the docks.

Araminta-two nodded cheerfully at a thunderstruck Liatris, then looked around briefly. “You know, some people think ingrav shouldn’t be allowed in this city.”

“Right,” Oscar said.

“There’s a chance it screws up the deep geology. There could be earthquakes.”

“Uh huh.” This was so the opposite of anything Oscar was prepared for, it had shifted over to vaguely surreal.

Their capsule dipped down to hover in front of the Bootle amp; Leicester warehouse. The doors curtained apart, and they nudged forward. Oscar just knew that was going to draw attention from the dock staff. It didn’t matter anymore. They had Araminta, so nothing else mattered. Actually, one Araminta, not the whole person. Maybe that’s why she-he-whatever-is a bit … flaky.

Tomansio was in the middle of the starship’s cabin as the three of them rose up through the airlock. The floor solidified underneath them. Oscar couldn’t help the vast grin on his face. He jabbed a finger at Tomansio. “I told you so!”

“Yes,” Tomansio said softly.

That was when Oscar’s biononics told him Tomansio was executing an extremely thorough field scan of Araminta-two. He almost protested, then realized he should have done it back in the restaurant.

“Clear,” Tomansio declared. “In fact, very clear. You don’t have biononics; even your macrocellular clusters are basic.”

“Mr. Bovey is multiple,” Araminta-two said. “He doesn’t depend on the technocentric systems other Commonwealth cultures revolve around.”

Tomansio dipped his head. “Of course. But you do understand what you’re saying is difficult to accept without proof.”

“I know. Watch through me.”

The Dreamer’s gifting to the gaiafield revealed her view through the front of the Lady’s Light. From her position she could see the curvature of the planet starting to fall away below as the starship rose ponderously out of the atmosphere. The dawn terminator line was etched by a gold corona that skittered off ocean and clouds alike. The Dreamer’s mouth opened. “Trust me, Tomansio, I am very real,” she said.

Across the gaiafield, those billions of Living Dream members watching in envy as the Pilgrimage began reaffirmed their devotion to her. Tens of millions wondered who Tomansio was.

Araminta-two lifted an eyebrow at Tomansio. “So?”

“Okay, that was pretty convincing. A multiple of two. Who’d have guessed?”

“Not you,” Araminta-two said.

“Let’s hope I’m not alone.”

Oscar grinned again. “I was right. She didn’t betray us.”

“Oscar, I love you dearly,” Tomansio said. “But if you don’t shut up about that, I will shove you headfirst into-”

Oscar chuckled. “Yeah, yeah.” The smartcore showed him two capsules arriving in the warehouse. Beckia and Cheriton came sprinting out. It took the edge off his humor slightly. He ordered the smartcore to launch as soon as the other two were in the airlock.

Tomansio gave him a startled look as the Elvin’s Payback punched clean through the warehouse roof and accelerated vertically at twenty gees. The internal gravity countered some of the force, but they all had to sit down quickly on the couches extruded by the cabin floor.