Salvation полностью

Yuri joined her as the threader’s largest portal, a meter-wide circle, divided. One went through to Zagreus. Yuri helped Dokal as the threader turned its twin vertical. Air charged through the opening so fast Yuri had to brace himself to avoid being pulled in. He caught a glimpse of dull, rocky ground surrounded by a weird curving wall of torches. There was a lot of elated cheering going on.

A surprisingly strong impulse gripped him. If I slip through, I’ll be standing on an exoplanet. It’s centimeters away, that’s all. An alien star! It was difficult to resist. Then the chance vanished.

Callum was crawling through on all fours. He flinched badly when he saw Yuri, and glanced at Dokal, who shrugged.

“Get on with it,” Yuri said impassively.

Callum turned around and started pulling at something heavy on the other side. Yuri’s jaw tightened as he saw the state Savi was in.

“Contact the emergency services,” Yuri told Boris as his lost agent was manhandled through the portal. “I need a paramedic team here immediately.”

Moshi followed Savi, then Raina, who gave Yuri a savage scowl when she saw him standing above her.

“Call Kohei,” Yuri told Boris.

Henry came through the circular portal. Then it was Alana blocking the blaze of torchlight. Colin made up the rear.

Yuri squatted down and looked through at Zagreus. Akkar was on his hands and knees, centimeters from the portal.

“Kohei, kill the power,” Yuri ordered. “Now.”

Akkar screamed in fury, flinging himself forward, his hand reaching toward Earth.

The spatial entanglement between Earth and Zagreus ended. Akkar’s fist landed on the paddock tarmac, splattering blood as it rolled to a halt.

“You bastard!” Raina shouted, staring at the severed hand in revulsion.

“Why?” Yuri asked levelly. “Did you want two thousand terrorists living here again, and madder than ever before? Maybe some of them could move into the flat next to yours; I read in your file it’s available to rent. This you would welcome?”

“I promised them,” Callum said, aghast. “I gave them my word they could come back.”

“I didn’t,” Yuri said.

“They’ll kill us if you send us back,” Alana said in a shaky voice.

“So you need to behave then, don’t you? Because Poi Li is pissed with you at a level even I find scary.”

“You can’t do this,” Callum said; he was still on his knees, holding Savi’s hand. He looked up at Yuri, beseeching. “They’re people. You can’t treat them like this; it’s inhuman!”

“No,” Yuri said, suddenly angry. “What they do—what they have done—goes way beyond simple criminal acts. They seek to destroy anything they dislike, no matter that it is enacted legally, or how many people are dependent on it. They smash and ruin others’ endeavors freely, and feel nothing. That is what cannot stand, not anymore. For once I agree with Ainsley and his ultra-rich political collaborators. Your friend Akkar and his allies have been judged, and found guilty. Tough, that judgment didn’t come after million-wattdollar-fee lawyers defended them in public courts, followed by ten years of taxpayer-funded appeals; tough, that we don’t spend hundreds of thousands a year keeping them in prison. But judged they have been, and far more leniently than they judge you or I. And even now, we give them a second chance.”

Raina’s hand shot out, pointing at the inert threader. “That planet is not a second chance. That is a death sentence.”

“Because of what they are,” Yuri sneered. “They have been given an entire world of their own. We provide the means to survive, even to thrive if they learn the basic lessons of society and cooperate rather than fight each other like savages. So I’m really, really sorry if Zagreus isn’t a five-star hotel with room service, but we can’t afford the luxury of tolerating them anymore. This is the humane solution.”

“Zagreus has one canyon where humans can breathe, a toxic shithole that’s poisoning them,” she shouted. “That’s not a world, it’s a freak site. Even if you send us back, we’ve got the recording of their conditions to blow this whole obscenity out of the water. It’s already downloaded into a cache vault. Right, Callum?”

“That’s your threat?” Yuri said contemptuously. “Okay, send it. Go right ahead. Send it to every news service in the solar system, every political commentator, every justice department. What do you think is going to happen?”

She glared at him, her facial muscles flexing.

“There’ll be referendums in the democracies demanding we bring them back?” he asked in a pitying tone. “Is that it? There’ll be international campaigns, million-person protest marches? Is that what you’re counting on? That. Will. Not. Happen. What court are you going to take this to? You think it’s just one country that exiles these people? One company? One continent? Some of those psychotic bastards are actually lucky they get sent there. Ten years ago, their own government would have simply executed them.”