Ibb, for his part, had replaced his hat and regained some of his aplomb. He sat, most of his face hidden, at the end of the table that was farthest from Kit. The look he threw Gyre when he came in was impossible to read.

Kit swiveled on her own chair, as though the effort of holding still was too much for her. Her eyes were on the thing they’d retrieved with such difficulty.

“Well?” Yora said quietly as Gyre entered. “What do you think?”

“Frankly,” Sarah said, “your guess is as good as mine. I’ve certainly never seen anything like it.”

Yora looked up at Kit, her eyes hard. “You say this thing will destroy a stasis web?”

Kit nodded eagerly. “It takes all of a minute. Maybe less.”

“That certainly makes things more possible,” Nevin muttered, not looking up. “Stasis webs are heavy, and unless you’ve got a centarch to help you, the only way to open them is with blaster fire. Risks damaging the contents, and it’s noisy. You said this thing we need to steal—”

“The Core Analytica,” Kit supplied.

“—you said it’s not very large?”

“I could carry it easily,” she said.

“Then we have a lot more options.” Nevin glanced shyly at Yora. “With a good team and the pick of the alchemists’ shops, I think we can do it.”

“Assuming this thing works,” Sarah said, setting the destabilizer down. “Which I can’t guarantee.”

“It’ll work,” Kit said.

“If,” Ibb said, pushing back his hat, “we do this at all.”

The room went quiet.

“You know I’m not going to pay for half a result,” Kit said. “If you want your share—”

“I understand.” Ibb shook his head. “But my share will be a small comfort to my husband and kids if I come back as a corpse.”

“I’m sorry about Harrow—” Kit began.

“No you’re not,” Ibb said. “Do us both a favor and don’t lie about it.”

“Fine,” she shot back. “He knew the risks. We all knew the risks.”

“Did we?” Ibb’s eyes narrowed. “You knew that thing was waiting for us. No wonder you were so eager to get out of there.”

“I hoped it wouldn’t still be active,” Kit muttered.

“And you didn’t think we could have used some kind of warning?”

“What for? All we could have done was run away, and we did that anyway.”

“He’s right,” Yora said coldly. “You should have told us.”

“Fine.” Kit shifted uncomfortably in her seat, unrepentant. “I’m sorry. I was worried that if I warned you, you’d back out.”

“I gathered that.” Ibb got to his feet and stared at Yora and Gyre. “And maybe we should.”

Nevin was hunched farther over his drawing, looking miserable. Sarah, silent through this conversation but watching closely, now turned to Yora.

“If we back out now, then Harrow died for nothing,” Yora said. “And we need the money.”

She looked at Gyre. Ibb turned to him, too, and Kit was watching out of the corner of her eye. Gyre swallowed.