You idiot!' I said, out loud, looking over at Heldane. This monster can control a crowd that big and you mind-speak this close to him?'
This monster/ Heldane replied, 'can read every mind in the city and beyond. He knows what we're all doing. There is no point in secrecy. Just effort. Is that beyond you?'
'How long until the next attack?' Kurvel asked, reloading his weapon.
They've become less frequent since we first arrived/ replied Heldane. 'However long it takes Esarhaddon to mind-search the surrounding habs and recruit another puppet force. He's having to cast his net wider each time/
'How did he get in there?' Roban asked.
Heldane simply shook his head and shrugged. Roban, a robust inquisitor of middle years dressed in brown and yellow layered robes, was a good man, though I didn't know him well. But he was an outspoken Xanthanite and the ultra-puritan Heldane had little time for him.
Voke and Heldane fell to discussing possible assault plans with Kurvel as the soldiers around us formed a defensive position.
This is a damned thankless task/ Roban said to me. 'I don't even know why we're here!'
'Cannon fodder/ said his youthful interrogator, Inshabel, bluntly, and it made us both laugh.
There has to be something…' I said. I took out my pocket scope and tried to read the energy patterns and spectrums.
'You!' I called to one of the arbites in our party, a grizzled precinct commander in full riot gear.
'Inquisitor?'
What's your name?'
'Lucius, sir.'
'Dear God-Emperor!' I sighed again and Roban laughed once more.
'Okay, Luckless – this palace must come into your precinct's patrol area.'
'Yes, sir.'
'So street security around it is your responsibility.'
'Again, yes sir.'
'So… just as a matter of procedure, your section house will have on file the shield type and harmonics for the palace, in case of emergencies/ In my experience, it was standard protocol for any arbites precinct to know such things about key structures within their purview.
'It's classified, sir.'
'Of course it is,' I sighed again. 'But now would be a good time.
He got on his vox-link and after a lot of effort, managed to get a channel open to the section house.
'You're on to something, aren't you?' Roban asked me.
'Maybe/
The wily Inquisitor Eisenhom-'
'The what?'
'No offence. Your reputation precedes you/
'Does it now? In a good way?'
Roban grinned and shook his head, like a man who might have heard something, but who had decided to make up his own mind.
'It's an old type-ten conical void/ Arbites Commander Lucius reported presently. Tangent eight-seven-eight harmonic wave. We don't have an override code. Lady Lange wouldn't permit it/
'I bet she wishes she had now/ said Interrogator Inshabel, caustic and to the point once again. I was beginning to like him.
Thank you, Luckless/ I said.
'It's… Lucius, sir/
'I know/
I tried to remember everything Aemos had counselled me about shields over the years. I wished I had his recall. Better still, I wished I had him here.
'We can collapse it/ I said, with fair confidence.
'Collapse a void shield?' Roban asked.
'It's conical… super-surface only. And it's old. Voids shrug off just about anything, but they don't retain their field if you take out one or more of the projectors.
That buttress there, the one the garden wall is built around, that's got to be one of the projector units, seated down into the ground/
Roban nodded, apparently impressed. 'I see the logic, but not the practice/
I walked over to Brother-Sergeant Kurvel, interrupting his conversation with Heldane without apology, and explained what I wanted to do.
Heldane scoffed at once. 'Lyko's already trying that!'
'How?'
'He's located the outer controls at the front gate and is trying to break their coding…'
'Coding and controls that will be dead and locked out thanks to Esarhaddon. Lyko's wasting his time. We can't switch this off. We can't break Esarhaddon's control over its system. But we can undermine the system itself/
Heldane was about to speak again, but Voke shut him up.
'I think Gregor may be on to something/
