'Since then?'
They shook their heads.
'He should have come on again at nine/ said Inex. 'Shall I check on him.'
No, I was going to say. Because he's dead. But there was no point scaring them.
I changed my mind. 'Do that, Inex/ I reached over and took the intercom headset off the man nearest me. He didn't protest. He didn't even notice.
'Go to his room and tell me what you find. Vox channel../ I studied the headset's small ear piece and adjusted the responder. '…six/
'Yes sir/ said Inex. As he turned to go, I reached out and touched him briefly on the forehead. He shuddered. My psi-imprint would stay with him for a good thirty minutes now, even once he was out of my vicinity.
Inex ran off.
I looked at the car door. It had been pulled to, but the 'unsecure' light was still blinking. There were thawing cakes of dirty ice on the metal deck inside the door.
'How many people went out?' I asked.
One of them checked the display. Twenty, sir/
'How many have come back inside since you got here?'
'None/ they all said.
They would be looking for me. For us. They knew we were on the train, and they'd got someone aboard at Fonette or Locastre. Someone who had befriended Rebert Awins, killed him and taken his pass keys. Someone with the technical expertise to trigger a partial brake lock, stop the train and then use Awin's keys to open an exterior door and let his associates aboard.
Someone who, by now, surely knew which cabins we were occupying.
I ran back down the train towards car three, using the lower deck hallways. I slid Barbarisater from its nedskin scabbard. It seemed so incongruous to be hurrying down a train's companionway brandishing a sword. But the cabins around me were full of innocent Imperial citizens and I didn't dare use my pistol.
I also didn't dare use the intercom.
I reached out psychically. Eleena was an untouchable blank, so I called to Aemos, Crezia and Medea.
Be ready. Trouble coming.
I passed several train staff in the hall as I made my way past and they jumped back in alarm as they saw the blade.
Forget! I willed at each one as 1 passed, and they just went on their way.
I reached the front end of car four and prepared to go up. A Trans-Continental steward lay face down on the stairs, his neck snapped.
Just then, the frantic voice of Inex wailed into my earpiece. 'He's dead! Oh God-Emperor! He's dead! Rebert's dead! Sound the alarm!'
The distress klaxon started to warble and recessed light plates in the wall began to blink orange. I saw a third red light had lit up on the car-end monitor panel.