Darien thought their return to Parker's hideout might have been a little more triumphant, but things seemed oddly subdued. He knew for certain that they'd at least proved themselves trustworthy in Gazi's eyes, by the fact they'd been allowed to see just where in the Haze the man had fortified himself.

Examining it from the outside for the first time, he found it both impressive and unassuming all at the same time. The thing blended seamlessly with the low, tangled mess of crags and gulleys that infested the region. The coal-dark structures had been built straight down into the rocks, worked through the outcroppings with painstaking care. The square edges jutted out from outcroppings before disappearing into the ground like the top of some oil-smeared iceberg. At a glance he couldn't tell if it was some kind of repurposed structure or built specifically to house the rebels, but whatever its origin, it was impressive.

Moats of lava simmered broodingly through narrow channels, flowing around the buildings like lurid veins of fire. Their bulky transport trucks wound between them on a route barely wide enough to carry them, bumping and grinding in a convoy, precious cargo concealed within. Theirs was second in line, following Gazi's lead vehicle down a slop through one of the gulleys, the ragged walls rising up to loom over them. They descended lower and lower until they reached the deeply buried entrance of the complex. A hangar door yawned open like the gate to the underworld, a row of sickly white lights guiding the vehicles through into the inky dark.

One by one they filed in, and once the last vehicle pass the threshold Darien felt the shudder as the immense doors slammed shut. Then light came spilling through the windows of the passenger compartment as the hangar's main lights flared into life, now safely concealed from any prying eyes.

The operatives rose from their seats in the truck and his eyes were drawn to Amber, her right arm still lashed in a sling. It wasn't much more than a flesh-wound and wouldn't keep her out of action for long, but it still twanged a chord of disquiet in him seeing her injured. He knew he was asking more of his people than he ever had before. He waited and walked beside her as they filed out.

"How you holding up?" he asked as they descended the ramp, moving out into the hangar.

She smiled wryly. "I've had worse days."

"One quick debrief with Parker then we'll get out of here."

"That would be lovely." She forced a smile. A surge of pride welled up in him at the sight. Amber had performed all her duties beyond what he could have expected. He'd expected far more push back from his teams when the plan to assault the convoy had been unveiled, but they'd more or less accepted it. Each and every one of them grasped the larger implications and had shown their willingness to do the hard things this campaign would require.

And a campaign was what it had become. The tensions on Ravine showed no signs of abating. Their communications with Merlynn kept the Blink teams appraised of a deteriorating situation, with more and more of the remote regions bubbling over into open criticism of both the local government and the colonial reinforcements.

Clashes between angry residents, rebels and government troops were becoming more frequent and it was increasingly clear to Darien that he needed to finish this assignment as soon as possible. So far the Beltock Dragoons had done their best to keep order without the threat of live fire, but it was only a matter of time. If they wanted to avoid the eruption of an out-and-out bloodbath they had to find the man behind the mask.

He saw a group of Gazi's troops unloading their prizes, ferrying twelve dwarf missile batteries out of the armoured truck they'd been transported in and loading them into a series of gravity cradles operated by technicians from the station. The weapons disappeared into the machines before being swiftly guided from the hangar, disappearing through passages Darien had not yet had the pleasure of being shown.

Along with Amber and Idas he followed Gazi and a small entourage of guards through the facility once more to make their reports in person to Parker. This time when they entered, the man was pacing back and forth, holding a glass bottle half-full of a viscous green liquid. Parker took a sip and nodded to them.

"Welcome back!" he declared, spreading his arms wide. "From what I've heard you delivered everything as promised."

Darien nodded. "We had a deal."

"Yes we did." Placing the bottle down, Parker leaned over one of the half-dozen holographic key interfaces that littered his desk, fingers of his left hand flashing over it. His eyes moved quickly, as though they were being jerked left and right by invisible puppet strings.

"I've got to say," Parker said, his eyes still roving over the screens. "I am impressed. Not many people could do what you did so... cleanly."

"Quick and clean is the only way it can be done," Darien replied.

"Someone should write that down." Parker looked up from the screen, seeming to belatedly notice Amber standing at Darien's side. "I hope that's nothing serious?"

"Not my first," Amber replied dismissively. "You should see the other guy."

Parker let out a short, coughing laugh at that. "Your people certainly don't screw around, Flint."

"They did good," Gazi confirmed begrudgingly. "We've got more than enough batteries."

"More than enough for what?" Darien queried innocently.

Gazi shot him a glare. "Not your concern."

"It was just a question."

"She's right," Parker cut in sharply. "It's not your concern."

"Alright, alright!" Darien raised his hands defensively. "I get you're running a revolution here, but you all need to lighten up."

Parker's fingers fiddled with the thick mass of his beard for a moment as he stared at Darien, his gaze as searching and invasive as any scanner. Then a thin smile slid across his face. He stepped around the desk in a swift movement.

"I like you, Flint," he said, pointing. "I think you and I could do with getting to know each other a little better. Gazi, get the others some food and a drink. We're taking a walk."

"Sir." Gazi gave him a stiff nod. A moment later the other operatives were shepherded from the room under the watchful eyes of Gazi's guards, leaving Darien alone with the rebel leader. Parker waited for a few more seconds before curling a finger at Darien, beckoning him forth. Obediently, Darien fell into step as the man led him through an adjoining passage, through a sliding door that was barely visible against the grey wall. It hissed shut behind them and then they were walking, moving down a narrow, rectangular hallway. No other doors opened off to either side – all Darien could see was the far end and a small porthole-like door embedded there.

They reached the door and Parker flashed his face over a scanner built into the left side of the frame. The machine whirred for an instant, then flashed green. A heavy clunk sounded from the other side of the door as the lock disengaged and Parker stooped through the aperture. With a niggle of apprehension in the back of his mind, Darien followed.

The room they emerged into took him by surprise. He wasn't sure what he'd been expecting to find in the bowels of Parker's facility, but this place looked like some kind of media room. There were three cameras pointed at a chair in the centre of the room, and a huge bank of screens filled the wall behind them, all of them showing reports from the various news outlets that filled Ravine's official channels. He tried not to look too closely. The rest of the room held a couple of desks, some old-fashioned computer units and a bulky generator with power-lines spidering away from it up the walls and vanishing into the ceiling.

It looked very much like a place that their quarry would have used to send his broadcasts.

"What do you think?" Parker asked softly.

Darien shrugged. "Quite the home cinema."

"Funny." Parker made a vague gesture in the direction of the screens. "We pipe all that crap through here, just to keep track of the official line."

"This room does a lot more than receive," he replied. "Any idiot can see that. I saw those broadcasts that slammed the nets. That was you?"

"That would be telling."

"Well, whoever did it, impressive stuff."

"You see, Flint, the message, that's what important to us." Parker told him. "People on Ravine have been conditioned to think that this is as good as it gets. They don't get a window into how the rest of the galaxy lives. And people in the central colonies; they don't want to believe that places like Ravine exists."

"I get it, rebels good, government bad."

"It's a lot more than that," Parker snapped. "You can be as glib as you want, but people are dying here, and it has nothing to do with the push back against the government."

"Push back?" Darien couldn't quite believe his ears. "That's what you call this? You've been stockpiling enough ordnance to level Karpa Luna!"

"Well, rest easy – that's not on our to-do list." The man chuckled. "All we want to do is get Ravine's story out. The navy, the dragoons, the local government lapdogs – they'd rather sweep this under the rug and pretend it wasn't happening. And they can get away with it here too. There are no mass graves on a planet like this. Any inconvenient corpses, just toss them into a lava flow and poof!" He made an exploding motion with both hands. "Problem solved."

"I can see the problem. But why are you telling me?"

"You've been supplying our cause when you didn't have to. You've probably helped us advance our plans by months. I'd like to know why."

"Because you paid for it."

"There's nothing more?" Parker shook his head. "I find that a little... unlikely. Most people think what we are doing is bad for business."

"Not for my business."

"So you really don't care how all this plays out?"

Darien gave him a withering look. "Look, I know the party line, Parker. I told you before, I don't give a damn about your politics. That's not why I'm here."

But then a sudden hardness crept over Parker's face. The man stepped away from the screens and planted his feet, face to face with Darien, so close he could hear the tremor of the man's breath. Parker's eyes bored into him, unyielding as rock.

"What we are doing here demands great risk," he said, his voice low and menacing. "And so I have taken risks. One of those risks is you. I don't know you, Flint, and I don't trust you."

"I don't need your trust," Darien replied flatly. "This is business."

With the quickness of a whip a hand snapped out, grabbing Darien by the jacket and shoving him backwards, slamming him into the wall. He forced himself not to react, taking in a sharp breath of surprise as Parker glowered at him.

"I don't believe that," Parker hissed. "Everyone has an agenda. Everyone picks a side. In days like this there are no bystanders. I needed those weapons, so I tolerated you, but now that I have them I don't need you any more. If you're telling the truth – if this is all just business to you – then you're expendable, Flint. I have no use for a cowardly snake who'll flip to the other side when enough credits come his way. You've seen too much here for me to take that risk."

Darien's jaw tightened and he held Parker's stare, trying to calm his racing heart. "So what do you want?"

"Tell me the truth, or I'll kill you." The click of a pistol's firing bolt cut through the gentle hum of electronics. Darien's eyes flashed down and he saw the gun – a simple black side-arm – pointed at his stomach. Silent, agonizing seconds crawled past as Parker held him there, ready to murder Darien in cold blood if he didn't like what he heard. For a brief moment, Darien didn't know what to say.

But then the solution came to him.

"Parker," he said quietly keeping his eyes locked with Parker's. "Do you know your parents?"

Parker blinked; confused. "Excuse me?"

"Your mother and father. Do you know who they are?"

"Yes."

"You see, I never really did." He exhaled a long, slow breath, ignoring the pistol barrel pressing against his torso. "I was born on Ravine, but I never met them. I remember a lot of things – lots of things I wish I didn't but that's not one of them. I couldn't even describe their faces. Would you like to know why?"

"Enlighten me."

"My mother died about ten seconds after giving birth to me. Some kind of respiratory complication. They'd fallen behind on their taxation – missed payments to the gangs running the med shipments and were rationing out their doses, but they weren't doctors. They got it wrong, and she died." He felt the tremor in his voice but he pressed on, knowing that this was his only chance. "And my dad... he didn't handle it. While I was still on a respirator he bought himself a cannon and tried to shoot his way to the man he thought was responsible. He killed nine people before they shot him dead."

Parker's iron expression faltered slightly. "And I take it he didn't get his man?"

"No. The whole thing was a waste."

"A sad story, but it doesn't answer my question."

"Doesn't it?" Darien smiled sadly. "It took a while for me to find out what really happened to them. Some people told me my dad was selfish – that he should have just swallowed it and looked after me. Some people thought I should be looking for the man who ran those protection gangs for revenge. They were all wrong."

"And why is that?"

"Because I've had a long time to think. I don't blame him for what he did. Shit, I don't even blame the bastards who had them paying for their meds. You know who I blame?"

"Who?"

"I blame whoever decided to try and terraform a hell-hole like this in the first place. I blame the engineers who failed to do it. And I blame whatever boot-licking bureaucrat decided to slap an extra tax on the people who can afford it the least. Those people are here now, trying to keep all those broken systems in place. And if they succeed, more people are going to die, just like my parents." Darien leaned forward, bringing his face just inches from Parker's. When he spoke his voice was strangled with barely contained anger. "I may not be the one trying to save the world, Parker, but I know who I blame for the state it's in. So you take those weapons we just handed you and kick the government in the balls. I hope it hurts."

Parker held him there for a moment longer, staring through narrow eyes, scrutinizing Darien's face for any sign of a lie. Eventually his lips pressed into a tight line and he eased off, stepping back and sliding his pistol back into the holster at his hip. They stood there in silence, the fizzing and bleeping of the consoles filling the void.

"Alright then," Parker said eventually. "Get out of here. Gazi will arrange your payment."

Darien didn't need to be told twice.

He walked shakily from the room, fists clenching and unclenching as he fought to contain the thunder of his heartbeat and the adrenaline coursing through his veins. It was partly fear. Fear that in that instant everything they'd worked for could have ended. But more than that, he felt sick. Memories he'd buried for years came washing out over him, threatening to overwhelm the protective dam he'd erected to keep his emotions in check. He could feel tears welling up in his eyes, the lump rising in his throat. Parker had asked him for the truth.

And that was exactly what Darien had given him.