'Okay, good work, Tomansio said.

Cheriton put his beer back on the table. 'Have you got any idea where Araminta might be?

'Not one. Liatris is running a hundred analysis routines trying to figure out where she could have taken refuge. Honilar won't be far behind him; even he is eventually going to work out he's being deliberately distracted.

'Great. Then the paranoia will really kick in.

'They'll go for her family next, Oscar said miserably. 'Make a big splash of arresting them to flush her out.

'Do you want to warn them? Tomansio asked.

'If they believe us, and it's a big if, that might make it harder for Honilar to round them up. Worst case scenario it'll take him an extra half hour. You keep telling me every minute is precious.

'Sounds like a plan. I'll start calling them.

'I'd better get back, Cheriton said. He stood up and slipped through the privacy screen.

'Nothing from the monitors we've got on Cressida, Beckia said as they waited for Tomansio to complete his anonymous calls to Araminta's family. 'We'll go to Nik's next, see if any of her old colleagues can give us a hint where she might be.

'Sure, he said. His u-shadow told him Paula was calling on a secure channel.

'Any progress? she asked.

'The Second Dreamer is Araminta, a Viotia native. So far she's managed to give everyone the slip. We're chasing up what leads we've got, but we're not the only ones here.

'You're sure it's Araminta?

'Oh yes. Oscar smiled fondly as he recalled their second visit to the apartments. He'd actually laughed out loud when he saw the top of the water tank lying on the bathroom floor. And from what they could determine, she'd stopped for a cup of tea and some biscuits before scooting out of there. That was real class — or total insanity. Either way, he was rather looking forward to the time when he finally got to meet her. 'Living Dream knows it, too.

'Can you get her first?

'We'll do our best.

'I have something to tell you, Paula said.

'This doesn't sound good.

'There is a Faction agent in a very powerful starship, equivalent to yours. They just fired a black hole weapon into Hanko. The planet is currently imploding.

Oscar's skin turned chilly. He stared at the bar's colourful hologram adverts without seeing them. 'Hanko?

'Yes. I'm sorry, Oscar.

'But I captained the Dublin there during the Prime attack, ho protested weakly. 'We went through hell protecting Hanko.

'I know. This is a new and very dangerous type of weapon. No one expected it to be used like this. I'm telling you so you understand the Factions are becoming desperate. Be very careful acquiring this Araminta. It is not a game.

'I understand. Why was Hanko so important to them?

'Inigo may have been on it.

'Wow. I see. Did he escape?

'We don't know. There's no communication link to the planet any more.

'Shit.

'Oscar. There's something else. I'm telling you in case I vanish. I suspect there's a good chance the agent was the Cat.

'Oh no. No no no. Not her. She's in suspension. You put here there for fuck's sake. That was the one thing I made very sure of after they re-lifed me.

'I don't know for certain yet. And it'll only be a clone if it is her.

'Only a clone? Oh Jesus. Where is she?

'I don't know. But if she turns up on Viotia, your Knights Guardian might be tempted to jump ship.

'Oh fuck! he said that out loud, very loud. Beckia and Tomansio gave him a curious glance.

'Now you know, Paula said. 'You can take precautions.

'Precautions? Against the Cat, in an ultradrive ship, with a superweapon? What kind of deranged moron let her have these things in the first place?

'As I said, the Factions are getting desperate.

'Wait. Why would you vanish?

'She, or someone like her, tried to kill me. She'll probably try again. You know what she's like.

'I want to go home.

'And you will. Not long now.

'Damn, I hate you.

'Hate is good. It helps keep you focused.

'It's not good, he protested irritably. 'It makes you irrational.

'Which makes you unpredictable. Which gives your enemies a difficult time determining your actions. It will be harder for her to sot a trap for you.

'I didn't have any goddamn enemies before you dragged me into this.

'If you genuinely need back-up, I will come to Viotia. I simply prefer not to unless there is no alternative. Do you want me there?

Oscar took a long breath and glared up at the ceiling. 'No. 1 have everything perfectly under control. He told his u-shadow to end the call.

'Everything all right? Tomansio asked.

'Blissfully wonderful. Come on, let's get over to Nik's. While Viotia's still here.

The winds on Hanko had always presented a problem to star-ships, or any flying machine, whether they used ingrav or regrav. The pressure which the unpredictable turbulence produced on the hull pushed the vessels about as they neared the ground. At high altitude it didn't really matter, precision wasn't necessary above the cloud level. But close to the ground it became more of a problem. Squalls and microbursts could shove the whole ship down unexpectedly, bringing it perilously close to a crash. As a consequence, nothing flew below eight hundred metres unless they were landing at Jajaani. That was in ordinary conditions.

As the planet's frozen surface began to quake and buckle prior to its final, fatal implosion, the storms accelerated relentlessly with windspeeds rising to over two hundred kilometres an hour Aaron found there was only one way to fly through such an environment: using the kind of speed and power that no wind could ever affect.

The Lindau hit mach twelve as he took it down to an altitude of five hundred metres. At that velocity, through a dense typhoon of hail, it didn't so much fly as rip out a vacuum contrail.

Supersonic annular blast waves radiated out from the force field, blasting the ice and soil below to granulated ruin. A thick column of lightning blazed along its roiling wake before discharging into sheets that spread over hundreds of square kilometres. Far above the starship, the upper cloud level bulged and seethed as if some massive creature was clawing at the planetary blanket.

Aaron reached the end of his run, and an eight-gee acceleration vector lifted the Lindau vertical. Seconds later he was out of the clouds and curving sharply at ten gees through the ionosphere to bring the nose down again. The starship's on-board compensators managed to relieve four gees, leaving him exposed to a full six gee force. Biononics braced his body again as he was shoved back into the pilot's acceleration couch. The Lindau plunged back into the lower atmosphere. It immediately began to vibrate with a frequency and intensity that threatened to shake the whole structure apart. Even with biononic protection, Aaron could feel his bones and organs quiver as his flesh was squeezed. Alarms filled the cabin with a panicked howl. Red strobes drowned out the ordinary illumination, immersing him in hell's own lighting scheme. He heard overstressed metal tearing. Somewhere behind him high pressure gas roared out of a fracture. Toxic alarms added their unique note to the clamour. Aaron strengthened his integral force field.

Solar-bright lightning overwhelmed the hull's visual sensors as the starship began its new run five hundred metres from the ground. The vibration grew progressively more violent. Aaron ignored it all, scrutinizing every byte of data from the external sensors. Within the chaos of the terminal blizzard, the ship's instruments could only scan a few hundred metres with any accuracy. His search area was a huge zone that stretched from the Asiatic glacier back to the Olhava camp, which he was forced to cover in strips eight hundred metres wide — with a fifty metre overlap to be certain of complete coverage.