A Darkling Plain by Philip Reeve Page B

compliment. It was her only weakness as a secret agent. She was so delighted by her own cleverness that she could never resist telling her victims how she had tricked them.
    Theo hoped that if he could keep her talking long enough, some helpful god might slip an idea into his brain.
    "The hair and skin were easy," Cynthia was saying. "The eyes were the real trick. I'm wearing little Old Tech things called 'contract lenses.'" She touched a finger to one eye and blinked. When she took her hand away, the eye was its old cornflower blue, gazing incongruously at Theo out of her dark face. "If you were any good," she said, "you'd have tried to hit me then. But I see you're still a coward. I'm rather looking forward to killing you, Theo Ngoni. That's why I was saving you till last."
    "Please," gasped Lady Naga, heaving about on the deck like something half drowned. "Don't hurt him."
    Cynthia stamped on her. "We're talking!"
    "Cynthia," shouted Theo, "why are you doing this?"
    Cynthia took another step closer, fixing him with her odd-colored eyes. "This Aleutian bitch betrayed our leader so that Naga could seize power. Do you really think those of us who loved the Stalker Fang would let her get away with it?"
    "But why here?" cried Theo helplessly. "Why now? You're part of her household; you could have killed her in Tienjing.... Killed Naga, too."
    Cynthia sighed sharply, exasperated by his innocence. "We don't want Naga dead," she explained. "That would only mean civil war, and more distraction from the real business of killing townies. We just want to make him give up this truce. If you hadn't interfered when I called our ships in at Zagwa, it would be over already. But I'm patient. In a few minutes this old rust bucket will go down in flames. Rohini will be the only survivor, and she'll tell Naga how Zagwa betrayed us to the townies and the townies shot us down. That ought to put the mockers on any alliance between Naga and your lot. As for the townies, well, he's hardly going to sit down and talk peace when he hears what they did to his pretty little wifelet. The guns will begin firing again. Our mistress will reward us when she returns to Tienjing!"
    "You mean Fang? But she's dead!"
    Cynthia smiled eerily. "She was always dead, African. That is why she can never be killed. She is waiting for us to end this treacherous talk of truces and conditions. Then she will return, and lead us to total victory!"
    "You're mad!" said Theo.
    "Oh, that's rich, coming from somebody who goes around smashing down doors with a dirty great axe," said Cynthia, and with no more warning than that, she swung her foot up and drove him backward with a kick, snatching the heavy fire axe from his hands as he went sprawling through the open doorway and tumbled down the companionway to the level below.
    A grated walkway hit him hard in the face, and he lay there for a moment tasting blood in his mouth and listening for the sound of Cynthia coming after him. He heard her footsteps pacing along the walkway overhead, and saw her shadow moving against the flank of the gas cell up there. He dragged himself into a crawlspace. After a moment the footsteps stopped. "Theo?" Cynthia called down. "Don't think I'm going to come looking for you. I was looking forward to killing you, but I really can't be bothered to play hide-and-seek. It won't make any difference anyway. There's a bomb under the central gas cell, set to explode at midnight. So I'm going to take one of your silly Zagwan kites and beetle off now; I've arranged to meet some friends of mine in the desert shortly. Toodle-oo!"
    The footsteps started again, and grew quieter as she climbed away from him. Theo guessed she was making for the emergency exit in the flank of the envelope. Just inside it was a locker where half a dozen kites were stored, workaday versions of the one he'd flown in Zagwa. He waited, and heard the hatch open, the sounds inside the envelope changing as the wind rushed in. Quickly he