Evensong

“Intelligence haven’t found them yet.”

“So blitz it. Throw masses of stuff against the wall. Check all the known mercenaries and ex-Special Forces with profiles like Carne and Hines, and question them until you...”

“Find who recruited them?” said Arden Bierce. “We’ve already questioned dozens. So far we’ve found five who were recruited like Carne and Hines—indirectly, through multiple layers and proxies.”

This is new. “And was your questioning any better than mine?”

She paused. “I’m sorry, Anwar. I know Miles was your friend. They said he’d been annihilated, and when Chulo was sent to find him, he was annihilated too. They even used similar phrases: ‘What our employers did to Asika. And what they did to Levin, which was worse. And Levin’s face, when he realised he couldn’t defend himself. There wasn’t enough left of him to make into an exhibit like the one they’d made of Asika.’”

Anwar was silent for a few moments, then asked carefully, “Are they still alive?”

“No. They all died like Carne and Hines. Autopsies showed the same crude enhancements as Carne. Nothing like yours, and even less like whatever killed Levin and Asika. And, before you ask, we’re tracing back the manufacture of the enhancements.”

“That’s an obvious direction, so they’ll throw all their countermeasures into it.”

“Then try another direction,” Rafiq said. “How do you think Hines knew about your questioning of Carne?”

“One of Olivia’s people? Not all of them are loyal.”

“How did he know it in such detail?”

“Microbot listeners?” As soon as he said it, and even before he saw Rafiq smile derisively—another unusual mannerism, for him—Anwar knew it was a lame answer. Microbot listeners were pseudo-insects, devices used regularly by the UN, by governments, and by large corporate bodies like the New Anglicans. They were known technology, and there were reliable ways of detecting and neutralising them.

“Fine, not microbots,” Anwar went on hurriedly. “A listener of some kind, but different. That’s something you can work on.”

“Oh, you think? Well, we’d better do that. Arden, will you make a note?” Anwar was startled. Of all the weapons in Rafiq’s considerable arsenal, Anwar had never heard him resort to sarcasm.

“We’ve already found them,” Arden explained quietly. “Nanobot implants, molecule-sized, located in the inner ear. Able to listen and transmit. Carne had one; so did the five we questioned. They’re quite sophisticated devices.”

“But if they don’t do enhancements very well...”

“Not organic enhancements, like yours. It doesn’t mean they don’t do other things very well.”

Hines said that, or something like it. But it isn’t what he meant. “Can you trace them back?”

“Not easily. Molecules don’t have serial numbers.”

“Those other enhancements—the ones you found in Carne...”

“Yes, we’ve started tracing them. There were smaller and smaller components and sub-assemblies, subcontracted downwards and downwards, until the people who finally made them were tiny one-or two-person machine shops, and the components they made were so small they had no idea what they were; and when we worked back upwards there were proxies and dead-ends and dummy corporations. We’ve been doing that,” she added, “since I got your account of Hines’ questioning.”

Anwar stayed silent. He’d started thinking again of Levin.

“Does nothing else occur to you?” Rafiq asked him.

“Not at the moment.”

“Can’t you do better than that?”

Levin used to say things like that, but mockingly. Not in that tone. “Why don’t you just tell me what should have occurred to me?”

“How about what they’ve done? I don’t mean about killing Consultants and threatening Archbishops, I mean what they’ve done strategically. They set up the New Anglican Church in 2025 and ran it, indirectly, through its founders. They work in long cycles and they aren’t part of the usual landscape. So we must find what pattern they’re working to, and then go back over years and search for what fits it. For what else they’ve done.”

“Isn’t that more your territory than mine?”

“Yes, but I thought you might have suggested we research it... And their network of corporations and proxies and financial holdings and subcontracting, we must unravel it and trace it back. That’s my territory too. But whatever they’re sending for her, whether it’s still on its way or already at Brighton: that’s your territory.”

“I know.”

“And are you sure nothing else occurs to you?”

“If it does, I’ll call you. From Brighton.”

Rafiq’s voice softened. “Remember, Anwar. They’ve got something that kills Consultants. Carne’s enhancements were crude, but they would be. If they had an advanced version of you, they wouldn’t let us see it. You do realize that, don’t you?”

“Of course I do.”