Chapter 17

In the Rubble

BACK IN THE control room of the West One Peace Keep, the Chairman and his Chief of Peace were still watching the main display. It now showed the image from the helmet-cam of one of the first wave of White Knights to reach the reactor.

There was almost nothing of the power station left standing. The Inimitable’s earth-shaking engines had brought most of its remaining walls crashing down during her lift-off. The whole area was a sea of rubble. And so far there had been no sign of a single Skirter.

As the White Knight wearing the helmet-cam picked its way through the ruins, the Chairman suddenly caught sight of something sticking out of a pile of collapsed masonry.

‘What’s that?’

General Decimal ordered the android camera man to zoom in.

It was a hand.

Within minutes, the White Knights had cleared away enough rubble to reveal the dust-covered body of a woman. As they removed yet more debris, she began to stir. Her eyes suddenly opened, flashing with anger. She lashed out with one leg and began yelling a steady stream of colourful curses.

The Chairman turned slowly to his military commander, who was staring in disbelief at the video display.

‘General.’ There was a trace of menace behind the Corporation leader’s soft tone. ‘What is my sister doing at the centre of your battle-zone?’

Decimal didn’t reply. Despite his exceptional intelligence and all the computer chips implanted in his brain, he really couldn’t come up with an answer.