Marcus's collar sensors showed him a spray of incendiary droplets fizzing out of the wall barely a metre behind him. The multipurpose tool must be some kind of laser pistol. «Katherine,» he datavised. «Retract Lady Mac 's airlock tube. Now. Close the outer hatch and codelock it. They are not to come on board.»

«Acknowledged. How do we get you back?»

«Yes, Captain,» Jorge datavised. «Do tell.»

Marcus dodged down a junction. «Have Wai stand by. When I need her, I'll need her fast.»

«You think you can cut your way out of the shell, Captain? You have a fission blade, and that shell is held together by a molecular bonding generator.»

«You touch him, shithead, and we'll fry that fucking wreck,» Karl datavised. «Lady Mac 's got maser cannons.»

«But do you have the command codes, I wonder. Captain?»

«Communication silence,» Marcus ordered. «When I want you, I'll call.»

• • •

Jorge's boosted muscles allowed him to ascend stairwell three at a speed which Antonio could never match. He was soon left struggling along behind. The airlock was the tactical high ground, once he had secured that, Jorge knew he'd won. As he climbed his hands moved automatically, assembling the weapon from various innocuous-looking pieces of equipment he was carrying on his utility belt.

«Victoria?» he datavised. «Have you got him?»

«No. He broke my shoulder, the bastard. I've lost him.»

«Go to the nearest stairwell, I expect that's what he's done. Antonio, go back and meet her. Then start searching for him.»

«Is that a joke?» Antonio asked. «He could be anywhere.»

«No, he's not. He has to come up. Up is where the airlock is.»

«Yes, but—«

«Don't argue. And when you find him, don't kill him. We have to have him alive. He's our ticket out. Our only ticket, understand?»

«Yes, Jorge.»

When he reached the airlock, Jorge closed the inner hatch and cycled the chamber. The outer hatch dilated to show him the Lady Macbeth 's fuselage fifteen metres away. Her airlock tube had retracted, and the fuselage shield was in place.

«This is a no-win stand-off,» he datavised. «Captain, please come up to the airlock. You have to deal with me, you have no choice. The three of us will leave our weapons over here, and then we can all go back on board together. And when we return to a port none of us will mention this unfortunate incident again. That is reasonable, surely?»

• • •

Schutz had just reached the bridge when they received Jorge's datavise.

«Damn! He's disconnected our cable from the communication block,» Karl said. «We can't call the Captain now even if we wanted to.»

Schutz rolled in midair above his acceleration couch and landed gently on the cushioning. Restraint webbing slithered over him.

«What the hell do we do now?» Roman asked. «Without the command codes we're bloody helpless.»

«It wouldn't take that long for us to break open the weapons cabinet,» Schutz said. «They haven't got the Captain. We can go over there and hunt them down with the carbines.»