I pulled Eleena back and faced him.
'I demand an explanation/ Suko growled, his voice reverberating from a mechanical larynx, 'for this… outrage. Nothing like this has ever happened aboard the Trans-Atenate. This vulgar violence and impropriety-'
'Impropriety?' I echoed.
'Are you responsible for this?' he asked.
'I would not have chosen for this to occur, but… yes/
'Detain him now!' Suko yelled. A pair of burly train guards who had withdrawn laspistols from the express's emergency locker the moment the alarms had started sounding, stepped forward.
There are three dead here, three more outside,' I said softly, looking into the train master's electric-shuttered eyes and pointedly ignoring the guards. 'All armoured, all armed… combat warriors. Do you really think it's a good idea to mess with the man who killed them?'
Silence fell on the corridor, colder and harsher than the ice storm still gusting in through the shattered window. All eyes were on us, including, to Suko's discomfort, the last of the gawping passengers still being herded out.
'Shall we continue this in private?' I suggested.
We went into one of the vacated cabins. I opened the hinged wooden cover of the suite's little cogitator, switched it to hololithic mode and pressed my signet ring against the data-reader. The little desk projected a hologram of the Inquisitorial seal, overlaid by credential details, followed by a slowly turning three dimensional scan of my head.
'I am Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn of the Ordos Helican/ Suko and his guards were speechless.
'Do you accept that, or would you like me to rotate slowly in front of you until you're convinced?'
The train master looked at me, so taken aback he barely knew what to say. 'I'm sorry, my lord/ he began. 'How can Trans-Continental assist the work of the mighty ordos?'
'Well, sir, you can get this train moving again for a start.'
'But-'
I'd had enough. 'I have been travelling incognito, sir. But not any more. And if I'm going to reveal myself as an inquisitor, I'm damn well going to behave like one. This train is now under my control/
We remained halted long enough for the engineers to service the brakes and secure the exploded windows. And long enough for the train guards, under my direct supervision, to search the entire vehicle for any other passengers without tickets.
Wrapped in crew-issue foul-weather gear, I went outside and retrieved Barbarisater, which complained fractiously about being left in the blizzard. I sheathed the whining blade and went to check on the three janissaries who lay sprawled and stiffening in the snow.