'So any plan that treats the Citadel, or the Upper City, as our main line of defence is one that only plays for time. Time for help to arrive. Help that, with our army committed hundreds of leagues away in Angland, might take a while appearing.' Will never appear at all. 'If the land walls fall the city is doomed.' Glokta tapped the dusty flags underfoot with his cane. 'Here is where we must fight the Gurkish, and here is where we must keep them out. Everything else is an irrelevance.'

'An irrelevance,' Vitari piped to herself as she hopped from one part of the parapet to another.

The General was frowning. 'I can only do as the Lord Governor and his council instruct me. The Lower City has always been regarded as dispensable. I am not responsible for overall policy—'

'I am.' Glokta held Vissbruck's eye for a very long moment. 'From now on all resources will be directed into the repair and strengthening of the land walls. New parapets, new gates, every broken stone must be replaced. I don't want to see a crack an ant could crawl through, let alone a Gurkish army.'

'But who will do the work?'

'The natives built the damn things in the first place, didn't they? There must be skilled men among them. Seek them out and hire them. As for the ditch, I want it down below sea level. If the Gurkish come we can flood it, and make the city into an island.'

'But that could take months!'

'You have two weeks. Perhaps not even that long. Press every idle man into service. Women and children too, if they can hold a spade.'

Vissbruck frowned up at Vitari. 'And what about your people in the Inquisition?'

'Oh, they're too busy asking questions, trying to find out what happened to your last Superior. Or they're watching me, and my quarters, and the gates of the citadel all day and night, trying to make sure that the same thing doesn't happen to your new one. Be a shame, eh, Vissbruck, if I disappeared before the defences were ready?'

'Of course, Superior,' muttered the General. But without tremendous enthusiasm, I rather think.

'Everyone else must work, though, including your own soldiers.'

'But you can't expect my men to—'

'I expect every man to do his part. Anyone who doesn't like it can go back to Adua. He can go back and explain his reluctance to the Arch Lector.' Glokta leered his toothless smile at the General. 'There's no one that can't be replaced, General, no one at all'