Malachi dragged a chair across the thick carpet. The wheels carved a shallow path through the deep pile which faded almost immediately. After a couple of cautious taps at the keyboard the machine beeped and came to life. Naturally it was encrypted. Malachi didn't waste time guessing. Instead, he fished the datachip from his pocket and touched it against the screen. Malachi knew the terminal would automatically begin the handshake sequence to open a channel to the datachip. He also knew that any half-decent security system would ask for authorisation before allowing the unknown chip access to the system. If it rejected the chip now, he would be out of luck. He didn't know any passwords and he was no hacker. But he was counting on the fact that this same chip had interfaced with the terminal earlier that day. Yoshihiro would have authorised the connection. Malachi was gambling that the authorisation was still in effect.

The screen updated and chimed a note of welcome.

Malachi smiled at his good fortune. Bingo.

He ignored the terminal interface and instead went straight to Nina's tools. She had designed them to interrogate systems and retrieve data based on a heuristic matching algorithm, perfect for someone who made their living extracting secure data from old fight systems. In this case, Malachi knew exactly what he was looking for. He entered his parameters and let the program run. The results came back instantly. Their data was still here. He copied it back to his datachip, then hesitated. Should he delete the original?

If I erase it Conway will know I've been here. Or at least his will figure that out sooner or later. I can't be sure that no other copies exist, so what would I gain? Plus, Conway's the one hiding something. He knows more than us, so deleting what he took from us won't do us any good.

Malachi's finger hovered over the command to erase the data.

But how much does he know?

Curiosity won out, and Malachi opened the data on the chip. It didn't seem any different, not at first. There were the same columns of data he had shown Tila back home. There was the cleaned-up version, and there was the hashed jump addresses.

Only they were no longer hashed.

The coordinates glowed on the screen in front of him, drawing him in, promising him their secrets.

Malachi checked the time. He had been here too long. He needed to go. But he couldn't help himself.

He logged on to the public network and queried the coordinates. He frowned at the response. He checked again, adjusting his search in case the first result was a fluke. The answer was the same.

Malachi whispered his puzzlement at the screen. 'Praxis?'

* * * * *

The bedroom door splintered away from its ornate hinges and fell onto the thick carpet with a muffled bang.

Ellie and Jayce whirled around. Jayce instinctively stepped in front of Ellie. Ellie clutched the back of his shirt.

The agent in the doorway carrying the battering ram stepped back. Behind him stood another agent, legs apart, weapon drawn and pointing into the room. The first agent dropped the battering ram on the hallway floor and pulled a palm-sized datapad from his hip as he entered the room.

'Two and clear, captain,' he said. The agent holding the needle pistol stepped moved aside to free up the doorway, and a third agent entered the room.

'Thank you, sergeant,' said the captain. He stood half a head taller than the sergeant, and towered over Ellie and Jayce. The other agents they had seen were all dressed in the same professional outfits of dark grey, as if ready for a board meeting. The captain couldn't be more different. Where the agents wore polished shoes, he wore combat boots. Where they dressed for the office, he was dressed like a soldier. They gave the appearance of wanting to talk. The captain of wanting to fight. He was dressed for a fight. His only concession to looking like a soldier was a pair of thick, white gauntlets tucked into his belt.

'ID her,' said the captain.

The agent thrust his datapad in front of Jayce. 'Thumb here. Right hand.'

Jayce had no choice. He reluctantly pressed his right thumb on the datapad screen and ignored Ellie's nails which were now digging into his back. It would be her turn next. His eyes were fixed on the captain. The datapad bleeped and flashed green.

'ID confirmed. Resident Jason Culver.'

'Step aside, Mr Culver,' said the captain. 'Let's find out who your friend is.'

'She's with me,' said Jayce, his voice cracking.

The datapad was thrust toward Ellie. 'Thumb here. Right hand.'

Ellie looked helplessly from the datapad to the agent to Jayce. Jayce nodded. It was the only thing he could do. Ellie pressed her shaking thumb against the screen. It bleeped a flat note and flashed red.

'No match, captain.'

'Retinal,' said the captain, eyeing Ellie closely. Behind him something moved in the corridor.

'That's her! That's the princess I told you about! Her friends are around here somewhere.'

'Blake!' hissed Jayce. 'You told them?'

'Right eye. Wide open,' said the agent. Ellie's eyes were already wide. The datapad chirped. A high-resolution scan of Ellie's unique iris pattern appeared on the screen, overlaid with white lines and markers, tracing the unique characteristics of her eye's ciliary zone and matching it against known data. Again, the same flat note.

'No match,' said the agent.

The captain stepped closer and took Ellie's chin between his gloved finger and thumb. He turned her head from side to side, as if appraising her. 'This is the princess he told us about?'

Anger overcame fear in a flash, and Ellie defiantly twisted her head from his grip. 'I'm not your princess.'

The captain's eyes flashed, and he grabbed her again, this time squeezing powerful fingers around her neck. Ellie banged her fists against his arm, but his grip was so tight she couldn't make a sound. She felt the pressure building inside her head. See could hear her heartbeat racing.

'Stop it!' pleaded Jayce. He threw himself at the captain's arm.

The agent with the datapad pulled him away and tossed him backwards. Jayce bounced over the bed and crashed to the floor on the far side. Tila's staff bounced off the sheets and fell with him.

The captain relaxed his grip and Ellie dropped to her knees, coughing and fighting for breath.

'Take them both,' said the captain.

The agent in the hallway touched his ear. 'Captain Typhon, I have a message from Control. They've lost contact with two agents in the kitchens.'

Typhon clenched his jaw and said through gritted teeth, 'Cause?'

'Unknown, sir.'

'Well, make it known, agent. I still have two targets unaccounted for. Things are under control in here. Find the others.'

'Yes sir,' said the hallway agent, and rushed away.

Typhon turned his attention back to Ellie, who was crawling backward away from him. He pointed at the bed. 'Arrest the boy.'

'Yes, sir,' acknowledged the agent. He drew cuffs and circled the bed.

Typhon dropped to one knee in front of the shivering girl. He took the gauntlets from his belt and put them on, tugging them securely over each finger.

'What's your name, princess?'

'Ellie,' she whispered.

'Where are your friends, Ellie?'

Ellie shook her head.

'Things will be easier if you just tell me, Ellie. Easier and faster. One way or another, I will find them.'

'I don't know,' she whispered.

'And I expect you wouldn't tell me if you did. I have danced to this tune before, albeit only briefly. Am I right?'

Ellie knew she should have shaken her head, she knew she shouldn't have done anything to make him angry, but one little spark of defiance remained.

Ellie nodded.

Typhon's mouth became a hard line. He tugged on his left glove with his right hand to make sure it was secure, and took Ellie by the neck again. She flinched, too scared to do more than squeak as he touched her. Her hair began to stand on end.

'Very well, princess. I'm going to have to make you talk now,' said Typhon. His glove flashed white, and electricity arced between the fingertips, whipped around Ellie's face and earthed into her skull.

* * * * *

The agent dropped to her knees and keeled over. Tila leaned on the pool cue and rolled over-worked shoulder muscles. Her sweaty palms slicked over the polished cue and she felt an unwelcome tickle and moisture rain down her back. She gave the agent a cautious poke with the cue. Nothing. She could enjoy her nap for now, but Tila still had work to do.

Tila picked up the stun-stick and examined it carefully. It wasn't complicated at all. Press a button and hit someone. Tila pressed the button and jabbed the stick into the agent's neck and watched the limp body convulse under the powerful shock. Not bad, but the pool cue was longer. Tila deactivated the stun-stick, tucked it into her clothes, and stepped out into the corridor.

And at the end of the hall, Ellie screamed.