Neal Asher - The Engineer Reconditioned

“We didn’t expect you until the morning,” commented Lumi by way of something to say. Bradebus nodded. “Morning we go off the track to the north. Should catch up with them a bit. Loop in the track.” He poked at the fire with a stick.

“Is that a good idea? They might turn off.”

Bradebus studied him estimatingly. “They’re out here after something. If it was close I’d have known about it by now. Must be in the deep wilder. They’ll stay on the main track.” He continued staring at Lumi, waiting.

Lumi nodded and returned to his tent. He was not yet ready to tell the tracker what this was all about. Morning was yet to make its presence felt when Brown called outside Lumi’s tent then went on to rouse his constables. Lumi swore, stuck his head out into the darkness, then checked the luminous dial of his watch. An hour until sunrise. When they set out the foliage above had become distinguishable from the sky, and it was just possible not to walk into the trees when Bradebus led them off the track. They had travelled for an hour more before the birds started singing, and travelled for three more hours before stopping to remove rations from their packs to eat while they walked. Lumi noticed that Bradebus watched this with amusement, then wandered on chewing at a piece of jerky that smelt suspect, and washing this down with gulps from his hip flask. At midday Lumi went up to walk beside him.

“Ready to tell me what it’s all about?” asked the tracker, his words only slightly slurred.

“A spaceship has landed in the wilder. Cromwell has the pilot. We think he is after weapons.” Bradebus nodded. “Lot of Proctor activity around here lately.” Lumi did not know what to make of that.

Shortly after this they rejoined the the main track and the tracker pointed at the signs of a large groups passing that way. “Gained about two hours on them,” he said.

Lumi wondered if it would be enough. Another day’s march and they would be getting into the deep wilder. They camped part way into the night, when they were all too tired to make good time, and when blade beetles started to be attracted to the lamps they carried. One man required stitches in his upper arm before he could go to his tent.

Lumi woke and did not know why. Had there been a sound? With utmost caution he pulled the revolver from its holster and slid out of his tent into the night.

“Everything all right?” he asked the guard.

The woman glanced at him then looked back out into the darkness. “The tracker went out there a moment ago. Don’t know what he’s up to,” she said.

“Which direction?”

The woman pointed.

“I’ll just go and take a look.”

Lumi walked out into the wood as the woman muttered something about ‘shitting in the trees’. Yes, that could be the reason the old man had gone out, but Lumi found he entertained suspicions about the old man. Might he be in the employ of Cromwell? Might he be leading them astray? Ahead of him he heard the rustle of leaves. He moved towards it, saw a flicker of blue light, moved towards that. As he drew closer the light grew brighter. There was an area of blue light, a huge shape moving about in it. A hand caught him by the shoulder and a hand closed over his mouth.

“Shush now,” said Bradebus, and took his hand away.

“Proctor,” said Lumi as the huge shape became recogniseable.

“Oh yes, lots of them here. Lots of them.”

There was something strange in his voice. Lumi watched Bradebus in confusion as the old man turned away and headed back towards the camp. Then the scientist glanced back at the light as it faded, before following the old man in. Had Bradebus come out here because he had heard a Proctor? Or had there been a more sinister reason? Lumi shivered in the night.

The next day of travel was marked only by the advent of their seeing a Proctor striding through the woodland far to one side. Otherwise it was exhausting and uneventful. Lumi quickly ate the food prepared for him and drank his tea before crawling into his tent and the comfort of his sleeping bag. In the dark before dawn they set out into more rugged country where deciduous trees gave way to conifers and patches of stone revealed sky above and a glimpse of distant mountains. There was a track of sorts that Bradebus led them from without a word of explanation. Lumi felt too tired to question, or to reassure Brown, but did have the energy to follow when Brown hurried to catch up with the tracker and demand an explanation.

“You’ll see,” said Bradebus, and hurried them on. Soon he brought them to the edge of the pines and a flat area of stone. Beyond the stone was nothing but purpled by distance mountains and sky. He waved them forward and walked to the edge. Lumi stood at his shoulder and looked down into the forest a thousand metres below. It was an awesome sight. Bradebus pointed.

“There,” he said.

There it was, lying on the shores of a lake, a silver cylinder amongst trees that only reached up to half its diameter.

“One would think a vantage point like this would be watched,” said Brown, glancing around.

“It is,” said Bradebus. “Cromwell’s people have been watching us for some time now.” He turned to Brown. “I said we would come as no surprise to him.”

Brown snorted in annoyance and walked away.

“How many people does Cromwell have with him would you say?” asked Lumi.

“Ten came with him, including the one from the ship — she has strange shoes — and about here I would reckon another ten.”

“We will have to be very careful then.”

“They won’t be as well armed, nor very well trained.”

They came across the first of them an hour later.

Keela squatted down in front of the woman and handed her a bowl of soup. It was accepted graciously and the woman sipped at it while Keela tested the chain attaching her to the tree.

“He’ll torture you,” said Keela.

“Yes, I imagine he will.”

“Why don’t you just let him in? If there are no weapons as you say… ”

“I am not amenable to coercion.”

“I don’t understand,” said Keela, settling down on the pine needles. “Why are you here?” The woman looked up from her soup and observed Keela with disconcerting eyes. “It is strange, is it not, that you ask me this now?”

“Well?”

“I am an ambassador from the human federation. I have come here to seek the wisdom if not the assistance of the Owner.”

“Why?”

“He is ten thousand years old. From who else would I seek wisdom?”

“He doesn’t exist,” said Keela.

The woman smiled and continued to sip her soup. Chagrined, Keela rose to her feet and stomped away.

“Anything?” Cromwell asked her.

“She just doesn’t make sense.”

“Then we’ll have to force her to make sense.”

Cromwell gazed speculatively at the glowing point of his cigarette.

They heard the crack of the shot simultaneous with the smack of the bullet against flesh. A constable staggered to one side, fell from the narrow path, and tumbled down the heather-tufted slope. Lumi had a glimpse of jetting blood, a raw exposure of flesh the size of a cooking apple.

“Down!” came the belated cry. Constables ran for cover behind the boulders at the base of the cliff as another shot range out and smashed splinters from rock. Lumi found himself behind a boulder with Bradebus and watched him take aim with his hunting carbine. He looked into the woodland below and could see nothing. The carbine went off with a satisfying explosion.

“Got the bugger.”

Immediately Bradebus was up and running down the slope. It all happened too quickly for Lumi. He followed after with the dazed constables and swearing Brown.

The man lay dead behind a splintered pine tree. Bradebus had shot him through the tree. The mangled bullet and wood splinters had made quite a mess. Lumi looked at the tracker questioningly. The man held out a handful of bullets. Lumi picked one up and inspected it: pointed steel tip, large caseless charge, enough to shoot a man through a tree, but of no use otherwise. There were no animals large enough to justify such bullets. How was it that they had come into this lowly tracker’s possession?