The machinery and electronics of its chariot fizzed and hummed, as if the organic intelligence plugged into its heart was listening to music.

Not at all wary, the Don moved forward. It shook in the darkness, its pistons and oscillators rotating and greasing the metal, releasing a cloud of blue steam.

This didn't deter the Don. Not one bit.

'I say, is there something that has taken your amusement, Gob?'

The spider sat in its web of darkness, the steady hum of its electronics diminishing into a mediocre staccato.

'That boy, that boy never fails to amaze us.'

'How so?'

'One moment on the brink of death, then the next he pulls the rug from out under your feet. Alive and well. Where do you think he is do you suppose?'

The Don looked back down into the cloisters, toward the alcove.

'You've waited here, like a spider in its web, hoping that he would pass. And that he hasn't you are generally surprised? Tell me, were your Auditors ready to take his number?'

He could see the Gob's face grow in agitation.

'Professor Heironymous Xindii, a terrified boy from Jeppa, the son of a whore who pulled the wool over even the Auditors' eyes. You are no divine collective but scavengers, ready to rip souls from barely cold corpses. You couldn't even see past his rouse, insignificant parasite.'

The red beam of light shot out over the Gob's head and held the Don within a beam of suppressed gravity, lifting him inches off the floor, pulling him closer to the Pope's chariot. The Don remained there, ten inches from the Gob's face.

'And could you, Fox? His best friend who he trusts implicitly. Trust us, Fox, you are nothing more than his pet. That Nelly-Doose has more pride in his affections, augment.'

'Well that may be,' replied the Don, his face restricted from talking fully. Forcing the words upwards from the gap in his top lip, the gravity of the beam squeezing harder. 'But at least I have seen divinity, power in Greenbank that will make you shudder, parasite.'

The beam squeezed harder and the air in the Don's lungs fled. He could see the fury on the Gob's face. That the walls of Greenbank had been breached by this lowly creature, this Augment. This number. The anger in the convoluted muscle then subsided, as if something warm and beautiful had just whispered into the Gob's ear. If he had an ear.

The beam stopped and the mechanism retracted and the Don fell to the floor gasping for air. The chariot tilted and the Gob sat languishing over the Tatterfox, enjoying his pain.

'Nothing, nothing lasts forever, Fox. One day we will breach Greenbank and we will take even his number. I think, even you know this. It's not about faith anymore, it's all about the numbers. You, Fox . . .' It corrected itself and smiled its horrendous grin, '. . . Your grace, for all your intelligence cannot see the end. Use your time wisely. Love, learn. One day we will take you too.'

The Don knelt gasping, rummaging deep within his brain for a witty retort but he didn't have the breath to start.

'Go now, find Xindii - your friend - and help him bring this fiend to justice. You will have our eternal gratitude.'

The chariot kicked and jolted, steam flowing into the cloisters of the church and the Gob disappeared back into the crevices of shadow that stained the candle lit chamber.

He remained on the floor for over ten minutes before he decided to get up, the Gob's last words haunting his ears.

Eternal gratitude.

The Don shivered.