The Thousand Emperors by Gary Gibson Read Free Book Online

lose an entire Clan on what should have been a straightforward operation. And it’s not like we can ask Marroqui or any
of the rest of them what happened.’
    ‘Why not? They’ll be re-instantiated, won’t they?’
    ‘Yes, and Karlmann Sandoz has already given the order to prep their clone bodies. Unfortunately, since the explosion that destroyed the complex left no trace of them . . .’ Lethe
regarded him from beneath shaggy eyebrows.
    Meaning, Luc guessed, that their instantiation lattices had also been destroyed. ‘So they won’t be able to reboot them from the point when they were actually killed,’ Luc
finished for him. ‘I get it.’
    ‘Which makes you our only material witness to what happened down there,’ Lethe continued. ‘The version of Master Marroqui they’re about to shovel into a new body
hasn’t even heard of you. That means at some point you’re going to find yourself standing in front of an investigative committee, possibly several of them. And they’re all going
to ask difficult questions.’
    ‘And that’s why you’re here?’
    Lethe smiled stiffly. ‘Actually, it concerns Antonov. You told a Sandoz investigator he was still alive when you reached the lowest level of the complex.’
    Luc shook his head. ‘I don’t recall speaking to anyone from the Sandoz.’
    ‘They sent one of their own here to interrogate you without getting our clearance first,’ Lethe explained. ‘You were still only half-conscious at the time. One of the medicians
told me it’s unlikely you’d recall any of it. I filed a protest and managed to get the details of what you told the investigator. So Antonov – was he still alive?’
    Luc nodded. ‘He was, yes.’
    ‘You also told him Antonov compromised Marroqui’s mosquitoes.’
    ‘Also correct.’
    ‘ Mostly correct. It turns out those mosquitoes were still transmitting some data back to the orbital platform parked around Grendel.’
    Luc sat up with extreme care. ‘So you managed to recover at least some data?’
    Lethe nodded. ‘Enough to prove your version of events. Up to a point.’
    Up to a point. ‘Go on,’ said Luc, sensing Lethe was leading up to something.
    ‘Your CogNet link stopped recording just before you reached the lowest level of the complex, and didn’t start again until you contacted Master Siedzik. That means we have no
idea what happened during the period it wasn’t functioning.’
    ‘You think Antonov compromised it in some way?’
    Lethe ignored the question. ‘Apparently you told this investigator that after your encounter with Antonov, you headed straight for the cryo units, but not before sending a warning to
Siedzik. Why?’
    ‘Antonov told me he was going to destroy the complex. He even told me the cryogenic pods were my best bet at staying alive.’
    ‘Let me just be clear on this. Antonov told you he was going to trigger a detonation?’ asked Lethe.
    Luc shook his head. ‘It wasn’t a bomb or anything like that. Antonov had a transfer gate set up down there on the lowest level, connected to a ship orbiting close to 55
Cancri’s photosphere. He set the ship to dive into the sun before knocking me out. When I woke up he was dead, and I checked the readings in one of the navigation booths for just long enough
to see he hadn’t been lying.’
    They both stared at him like he’d started barking profanities.
    ‘Didn’t I tell the investigator . . . ?’
    ‘No, you didn’t,’ said Lethe, looking outraged. ‘A transfer gate? How the hell could Antonov get his hands on technology like that?’
    ‘I have no idea,’ said Luc, ‘but I swear to you it’s the truth. He was badly wounded, dying.’
    Luc stopped, his head throbbing with sudden, unexpected pain. It wasn’t hard to guess Lethe didn’t believe a word.
    ‘How badly wounded?’ asked the Director.
    Luc swallowed with some difficulty. Sharp spikes of pain radiated from inside his skull, getting worse with every passing second. ‘He had a