The Clan Corporate

She turned and crawled toward the door to the reception chamber. A bullet cracked off the tiled floor in front of her, spraying chips of marble, and she pulled back hastily.

It was twilight outside, and the chandelier was down. The soldiers outside seemed determined to bottle a couple of hundred people up inside a burning building with no fire extinguishers. People who'd come here to celebrate her betrothal. She felt a rising sense of nausea. Not that she'd wanted it herself, but this wasn't her idea of how to extract herself from the situation-

There was a side door, discreet and undecorated, behind one of the pillars. She eyed the bullet holes high up it warily, then glanced round at the dais. It was partly shielded. She crawled forward again, her shoulder blades twitching. People were screaming now, cries of alarm mingling with the awful panting gasps of the wounded.

The door opened onto darkness. Miriam stood up as she ducked inside. Isn't this the passage they brought me through to see the queen, the first time? she wondered. If so, there should be another door here-

She pushed the door carefully and it opened into another room, largely obscured by the pillar and drapes positioned to hide it from genteel attention. She froze in place, trying to look like another ornate swag of curtain. Half a dozen soldiers in what looked like stained leather overalls worn under chain-mesh surcoats were standing guard. Some held swords, but a couple were armed with modern-looking pistols. Two of them were covering a group of captives who lay facedown on the floor. "You will guard these tinkers in the rear," one of them told his companion. "If there is any risk of escape, kill them." He continued in rapid hochsprache, too fast for Miriam's ear.

Two of the guards were yanking the captives to their feet. They seemed slow to move, disoriented. The guards were brutally efficient, dragging them forward toward the main door. The talkative one bent over a lump on the floor and did something. "Hurry!" Then he followed the others out hastily.

Shit. That's got to be a bomb. As soon as he was out, Miriam scurried forward. It was green, it had shoulder straps, and there was some kind of timer on top of it. One of Matthias's leftover toys. Why am I not surprised? If I move it-She froze, indecisive. What if there's a trembler switch? She glanced at the door they'd left through. I've got to get out of here!

Miriam ducked into the next servant's passage, darting along it. She reached the outer receiving chamber with the floor-to-ceiling glass doors, worth a fortune in this place, just about the time the men in black were leaving it. Creeping forward, she looked out across a scene of devastation. Beyond the shattered windows lay what seemed to be half the palace guard. They lay in windrows, many of them still clutching their broken pikestaffs. Another gout of thunder and a lick of flame told her why: across the ha-ha at the end of the terrace, a group of figures moved urgently about their business, manhandling an archaic-looking ca

Jesus, it's a full-scale coup, she thought, just as another distinctive figure stumbled around the front of the building.

"Creon!" she called out, forgetting that she was trying to hide. He was out in front, while she was at the back of the reception room, in near-darkness. He probably couldn't hear her anyway. Her heart lurched. What's he doing? Who the hell knows what he thinks he's doing? Right now he was silhouetted against the twilight outside, but in a moment-

Creon loped away from the front of the palace, toward the gun crew. He seemed to be waving his arms

"Creon! No!" she yelled. Too late. One of the pikemen beside the ca

Miriam shook herself, like a dog awakening from a deep sleep. Appalled, she took a step forward.

Someone grabbed at her from behind. He missed her, snagging her veil instead. She spun round and lashed out hard with her left fist, all the anger and frustration of the past days boiling up inside her. Then she doubled over in pain as her assailant punched her in the stomach.

"Aushlaant' bisch-"

She gasped for air, looking up. He had a dagger in his hand, and an expression on his face that made her elbows and knees turn to jelly. He's going to-

The back of the man's head vanished in a red spray, and he dropped like a stone.

"Fuck!" she screamed, finally getting her breath back.

"Miriam?" Hesitantly. I know that voice, she thought dizzily. "Are you all right?"

"No," she managed to choke. Putting one arm out she tried to lever herself up.

"Let me help-"

"No." She managed to half sit up, then discovered her corset wouldn't let her. "Yes." What the fuck are you doing here? she wondered.

A hand under her left armpit gave her the support she needed. Her right hip hurt and her back and stomach felt bruised. She stood gasping for a minute, then turned and stared, too tired and bewildered to feel any surprise. He was wearing hiking gear and what looked like an army-surplus camo jacket under a merchant's robe, obviously picked up on his way here. It was simply the final ironic joke to cap a whole day of petty horrors. "Tell me what you're doing here," she said, trying to keep her tone level. Think of the devil and he'll drop by to say hello…

"I don't know," he said shakily. "It wasn't meant to go like this. I was just sent here to have a quiet chat with you, gunfights weren't on the agenda." He stared at the body and swallowed.

"The agenda," she said tartly, forcing herself to ignore it. "Are you still working for the DEA? Would this happen to be their idea?"

He cleared his throat. "I'm still a DEA agent, yes. In a ma

She felt an inane giggle trying to work its way up her throat, stifled it ruthlessly. Three years older, three years wiser. The last time she'd seen Mike she'd told him to scratch her name out of his address book. She'd been half-convinced he was a psychopath. Now she'd met some real psychopaths and she wasn't so sure. "People just sort of keep trying to kill me around here. It seems to be the national sport."

"Poor Miriam." His tone was mock-sympathetic, but when she looked at him sharply his expression was anything but light. "I was sent here to have a little talk with you. Our intelligence was that this was a royal garden party: do they always blow the place up for kicks?"

"No. But the king was supposed to be a

"If this is their idea of a wedding party, I'd hate to see a divorce. Who're the happy couple?"

"That's the groom, over here." She nodded at the window, at the darkness and flames beyond. "This was meant to be my engagement." That's right, oversimplify the situation for him, she mocked herself. "Only it seems to have turned into the excuse for a coup. I reckon this bastard was one of Egon's thugs."

"I'm sorry."

"No, that's all right," she said numbly. "It was an arranged marriage. They like to deal with uppity women by marrying them off." She stared at him fixedly. I can't believe I'm standing in a burning palace talking to Mike Fleming! "So this is DEA business, right? I guess Matthias spilled his guts in return for protection?"

"DEA-Matthias-" He stared at her tensely. A thought struck Miriam: hoping he wouldn't notice, she clasped her hands together in front of her, trying to unobtrusively unfasten one cuff.