Nemesis

He did; and beneath that, there was a scribble that appeared to be the attempt to form another string of letters, the shape of them lost now. But above the name, there was another clearly-lettered word.

‘Whyteleaf. Is that a person’s name?’

Yosef shook his head, instantly knowing the meaning. ‘Not a person. A place. I know it well.’

Hyssos was abruptly on his feet. ‘Close?’

‘In the low crags, a quick trip by coleopter.’

The investigator’s brief flash of grief and sorrow was gone. ‘We need to go there, right now. Perrig’s readings decay over time.’ He tapped the broken slate. ‘If she sensed Sigg was in this place, every moment we waste here, we run the risk he will flee again.’

Skelta had caught the edge of their conversation. ‘Sir, we don’t have any other units in the area. Backup is dealing with a railganger fight that went bad out at the airdocks and security prep for the trade carnival.’

Yosef made the choice then and there. ‘When Daig gets here, tell him to take over the scene and keep Laimner occupied.’ He moved towards the door, not looking back to see if Hyssos was following. ‘We’re taking the flyer.’

5

The operative had lost colleagues before, and it had been difficult then as it was now; but Perrig’s death was something more than that. It came in like a bullet, cutting right into the core of Hyssos’s soul. Losing himself in the rush of the dark, low clouds outside the windows of the coleopter, he tried to parse his own emotional reactions to the moment without success. Perrig had always been a good, trusted colleague, and he liked her company. She had never pressured him to talk about his past or tried to worm more information out of him than he wanted to give. Hyssos had always felt respected in her presence, and rewarded by her competence, her cool, calm intelligence.

Now she was dead; worse than dead, not a corpse even, just dark cinders, just a slurry of matter that did not bear any resemblance to the human being he had known. He felt a hard stab of guilt. Perrig had always given him her complete and total trust, and he had not been there to protect her when she needed it. Now this investigation had crossed from the professional to the personal, and Hyssos was uncertain of himself.

Looking from the outside in, had he been a passive observer, Hyssos would have immediately insisted that an operative in his circumstances be withdrawn from the case and a new team assigned from the Consortium’s security pool. And that, he knew, was why he had not yet sent an official report on Perrig’s death to the Void Baron, because Eurotas himself would say the same.

But Hyssos was here, now, and he knew the stakes. It would take too long to bring another operative up to speed. As competent as locals like Sabrat were, the reeve’s seniors couldn’t be trusted to handle this with alacrity.

Yes. All those were good lies to tell himself, all gilded with the ring of truth, when in fact all he wanted at this moment was to put Perrig’s killer down like a rabid animal.

Hyssos clasped his hands together to stop them making fists. Outwardly his icy calm did not shift, but inside he was seething. The operative glanced at Sabrat as the flyer began to circle in towards a landing. ‘What is this Whyteleaf?’

‘What?’ Sabrat turned suddenly, snapping at him with venom, as if Hyssos had called out some grave personal insult. Then he blinked, the strange anger ebbing for a moment. ‘Oh. Yes. It’s a winestock. Many of the smaller lodges store vintage estufagemi here, holding barrels of it for years so it can mature undisturbed.’

‘How many staff?’

Sabrat shook his head distractedly. ‘It… It’s all automated.’ The flyer’s skids bumped as the craft landed. ‘Quickly!’ said the reeve, bolting up from his seat. ‘If the coleopter dwells, Sigg will know we’re on to him.’

Hyssos followed him down the drop ramp, into a cloud of upswept dust and leaves caught in the wake of the aircraft. He saw Sabrat give the pilot a clipped wave and the coleopter rattled back into the sky, leaving them ducking the sudden wind.

As the noise died away, Hyssos frowned. ‘Was that wise? We could use another pair of eyes.’

The reeve was already walking on, across the top of the shallow warehouse where they had been deposited. ‘Sigg ran the last time.’ He shook his head. ‘Do you want that to happen again?’ Sabrat said it almost as if it had been the operative’s fault.

‘Of course not,’ Hyssos said quietly, and drew his gun and a portable auspex from the pockets inside his tunic. ‘We should split up, then. Search for him.’

Sabrat nodded, crouching to open a hatch in the roof. ‘Agreed. Work your way down the floors and meet me on the basement level. If you find him, put a shot into the air.’ Before Hyssos could say anything in reply, the reeve dropped through the hatch and into the dark.

Hyssos took a deep breath and moved forward, finding another accessway at the far end of the warehouse. Pausing to don a pair of amplifier glasses, he went inside.

6