That evil insidious whispering was not what he wanted to hear. The worst part of it was that the voice was his own, strangely mutated, steeped in aeons of sin.

'Look at him, Auric,' said the female. 'He is close to the Abyss. Are you sure he is the one you have forseen? He can only lead us to evil. The Great Enemy almost has this one in their clutches already.'

Auric shook his head. 'This one does not belong to him. Not yet, anyway. There is that within him that will resist, at least for a while, although he does not know what he resists, or why.'

'Nonetheless, they will have him. The signs are clear.'

'Unless we help.'

'Talk as if I am not here, why don't you?' muttered Janus. The voices seemed to be receding as the drug took effect.

'If you come with us, there is a way you might be saved,' said Auric. 'If you help me, I will help you. I know the nature of that which consumes you and will show you a way to overcome it.'

'Would that involve scourging my body on the autorack, and my soul with confession?' Janus asked cynically. 'Is this some new method the Inquisition uses to get to people like me?'

'Now you speak like a fool, human,' said the female. 'You know we are not from your Inquisition. If we were, we would not be speaking. Warriors would be carrying you off into captivity.'

Janus looked at her. The cowl had slipped slightly. He could see something of the features of the lower half of her face. Her chin was narrow and sharp, the lips wide and full, the teeth small and sharp and very, very white. There was more than the suggestion of inhumanity about that narrow face. She could be eldar, he thought. So could the other one.

'Will you help us, human?' she asked. 'Or are we wasting our time?'

'What will you do if I say no? Find someone else to take you into the Eye?' From Auric's manner earlier, Janus knew this was unlikely. For whatever insane reasons he might have, the psyker seemed to have decided that Janus was the only man for the job, and in a way he could be right.

Janus was perhaps the only man in the Freeport who would consider taking a ship into that zone of death.

There probably was no one else who would. Had someone on the Council guessed his secret and put these two strangers onto him? Maybe no psychic powers were involved, only convincing play-acting and ominous words.

Janus considered his options. There was absolutely no way he was going into the Eye of Terror. Of all the potentially suicidal decisions he could make, that was the most suicidal. But these people knew too much about him, that was for sure, and that gave them leverage.

On the other hand they seemed no keener on facing the authorities than he was. He needed time to think, and time to get sober, and most of all he needed money. If he was going to get his ship and his crew back, and get off Medusa, he most assuredly needed lucre.