commander’s office when the officer came running in, barking orders at him. At his
heels were a pair of the palace men, and seeing them, Rufin at last caught up to what
was going on. When his commander bellowed at him to come to his aid, Rufin took
up the ornamental dagger the man used as a letter opener and stabbed him with it.
Later, the leader of the invading troops shook his hand and offered him a marker with
which to scratch out his own Imperial emblems.
He got his officer braid because of that, and all the men who surrendered with
him took it too, that or the buzz of a las-round to the back of the head. After the dust
settled the new regime needed officers to fill the ranks they had culled. Rufin was
happy to accept; Emperor or Warmaster, he didn’t give a damn whose name he had
to salute. He had no respect for any of them.
Rufin left the motor pool behind. His new command was the “emergency
circumstances security camp” established on the site of the capital terminus monorail
138
station. Ever since the nobles had shut down the networks, the passenger trains had
lain idle; but now they had a new duty, serving as prison accommodations for the
hundreds of civilians and idiot rebels who had dared to defy the new order.
Rufin lorded it over them, walking back and forth across the high gantries above
the choked platforms, making sure each inmate knew he held the power of life and
death with random beatings and executions. When he wasn’t exercising his dull
brutality and boredom on them, Rufin was prowling the ammo stores on the lower
levels, in what used to be the maintenance wells for the engines. He liked being down
there, among the smells of cordite and gunmetal. It made him feel like a real soldier
to be surrounded by all that firepower.
Entering the observation cupola above what was once the station’s central plaza,
he caught the watch officer sipping a mug of black tea and gave him a glowering
stare. “Status?” he barked.
The officer looked at his chronograph. “Check-in at the top of the hour, sir.
That’s another quarter-turn away.” He had barely finished speaking when the
intercom grille over their heads crackled into life.
“Early?” said Rufin.
“Post two, say again?” began the watch officer, but Rufin snatched the handset
from him and snarled into it.
“This is the base commander! Explain yourself!”
sound like a quick, low hum, followed a heartbeat later by a wet chug and then the
echo of a body falling.
Rufin thrust the handset back at the watch officer, uncertain what to do next.
“Shall I try to raise the other guard posts now, sir?” said the other man, stifling a
cough.
“Yes,” He nodded. That sounded like the right sort of thing. “Do that.”
Then, without warning, the old control board left intact from the station’s prior
function flickered into life. Lines of colour denoting tracks, blocks of illumination
signifying individual carriages, all began to click and chatter as they activated.
Rufin shot a worried look out of the windows of the cupola and heard the mutter
of dozens of electric motors coming alive. The sound echoed around the vaulted glass
spaces of the station concourse and platforms. Below, the prisoners were scrambling
to their feet, energised by the sound. Rufin drew his pistol on impulse and kneaded
the grip. “What’s going on?” he demanded.
The watch officer looked at the consoles before him in surprise. “That… That’s
not possible,” he insisted, coughing again. “All remote operations of station systems
were locked down, the hard lines were severed…” He swallowed hard, beads of
sweat appearing on his high forehead. “I think someone is trying to move the trains.”
Below, the ornate copper departure boards for all the platforms began whirring in
a rattling chorus of noise, each one flashing up destination after destination. With a
139
sharp report, they all stopped at once, all of them showing the same thing;
The prisoners saw the words and let out a ragged cheer. Rufin shouted abuse back
at them, and caught sight of one of his men running up the platform with a heavy
autogun in his grip. The trooper was perhaps twenty metres from the jeering
prisoners when his chest exploded in a silent, red blossom, and he fell.
Finally, the correct words registered in his mind. “We’re under attack!”
When Rufin turned back to the watch officer, the man was lolling in his chair,
eyes and mouth open, staring blankly at the ceiling. He caught a strange, floral smell