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much more about that. The clearance for the mission comes from the top of
our society.' She took a breath. 'And the reason that it doesn't matter too
much at this stage exactly what it is you are being asked to do is that in one
sense what's being asked of you is as bad as it gets.' She looked into his eyes.
'This is a suicide mission, Major Quilan.'
He had forgotten the sheer pleasure of staring into a female's eyes, even if she
was not Worosei, and even if that pleasure, like some emotional
internalisation of physical law, created an equal and opposite feeling of grief
and loss and even guilt. He gave a small, sad smile. 'Oh, in that case, Colonel,'
he said, 'I'll definitely do it.'
'Quil?'
'Hmm?' He turned to face the tall, triangular bulk of the Homomdan, who had
bumped into him.
'Are you all right? You stopped very suddenly there. Did you see something?'
'Nothing. No, I'm fine. I just ... I'm fine. Come on. I'm hungry.'
They walked on.
~ I just recalled. The Lady Colonel told me this is a one-way mission.
~ Ah, yes, there is that.
~ It is all coming back, isn't it?
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~ Unlike us, yes. That's the way they've arranged it. That's what we both
agreed to. It seems to have worked so far.
~ You knew, too, then.
~ Yes. That was part of Visquile's briefing.
~ Which is why they kept you backed-up in that substrate.
~ Which is why they kept me backed-up in that substrate.
~ Well. I can't wait for the next instalment.
He reached the summit of the cliff path and saw the town; a scimitar of white
towers and spires lying cradled in a bowl of wooded valley bordered by rising
chalk cliffs, its bay protected from the sea by a spit of sand. Waves beat
whitely on the strand. The Homomdan joined him, standing massively at his
side and all but blocking out the wind. There was a hint of rain in the air.
The following day she left her mount in the monastery stables with her
uniform. She dressed in the waistcoat and leggings of a Handed; he was to
impersonate a Grafted, so wore trousers and an apron. They both put on
nondescript grey winter cloaks. He said goodbye to Fronipel but to nobody
else.
They waited until all the work parties had departed before leaving the
monastery, then they walked down the lower path through the falling snow
and the bare husks of spall trees, past the distant wood-gatherers - their songs
heard through the quietly falling snow, as though they were the voices of
ghosts - down through a level of wispy cloud where the Colonel's grey cloak
seemed almost to disappear at times and then through the drumming rain
beneath and the dripping forest of dark leaves that descended towards the
valley floor, where they turned and followed the deeply shaded track above
the river rushing whitely in the chasm below.
The rain slackened and ceased.
A group of Tallier caste hunters in an old All-Terrain on their way back from
the forests after stalking jhehj offered them a lift, but they refused politely.
The trailer behind the All-Terrain was piled with the carcasses of the animals.
It bounced down the track into the gloom with its cargo of the dead, so that
from then on they followed a line of fresh blood-spots.
Finally, in the foothills of the Grey Mountains, towards sunset, they came out
onto the Girdling turnpike, where cars and trucks and buses hummed past,
trailing spray. A large car was waiting for them by the roadside. A young male
who looked uncomfortable in civilian clothes opened the door for them and
completed three-quarters of a salute to the Colonel before remembering. The
vehicle's interior was warm and dry; they took off their cloaks. The car swung
out onto the road and set off down the route towards the plains.
The Colonel plugged into a military com set in a briefcase on the rear seat and
left him to his own thoughts as she sat with eyes closed, communicating. He
watched the traffic; the outskirts of the city of Ubrent sparkled out of the
gloom. It looked in better repair than the last time he'd seen it.
Within an hour they had reached the airport, and a sleek black sub-orbiter
sitting on the mist-curdled runway. He was about to reach out and touch the
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