‘Special Operations is prepared to make a serious offer,’ Ysbel said. ‘For the map, and the name of the person who owns it.’

‘Ah, but I don’t want your money either. Not only because of my reputation, but because you were rude to me. Trina Mersdaughter didn’t get what she wanted, and neither will you, or Special Operations. If that’s who you are really working for.’ The black tip of Joyous Hightower’s tongue touched his sharp white teeth. ‘It’s amusing to think that after you return empty-handed you might end up in the same dismal little office where Trina has been caged.’

‘You have many contracts with the Authority, supplying materials for various building projects,’ Ysbel said, falling back on the script Iryn Moonsdaughter had given her. ‘Fourteen, at present. If you co-operate and tell me who presently owns the map, you’ll be looked on favourably for new contracts. But things might go differently if you don’t.’

Joyous Hightower studied her for a moment and said, ‘I rather doubt that someone like you has the power to do something like that.’

‘I’m the messenger for someone who does,’ Ysbel said.

‘Then run back to Special Operations, little messenger, and tell them I won’t be bought,’ Joyous Hightower said, and cut the line.

‘He’s about what I expected,’ Goodwill remarked.

‘What was that?’ Ysbel said. She was filmed in sweat and felt slightly filthy after her futile attempt at blackmail.

‘A go-between who fears the map’s new owner more than he fears your superiors,’ Goodwill said.

He didn’t seem especially upset about the way the conversation had gone. Perhaps he believed that Ysbel’s failure to win anything useful from Joyous Hightower diminished or excused his own.

‘Thanks to you, we have another lead,’ Ysbel said.

‘The railhead project. Do you think your maps will tell us anything interesting?’

‘I think you may need more than maps,’ Zaquil said, surprising both of them. ‘Let me show you what I mean.’

He put up two images of the railhead in the window. A fan of railway sidings with buildings off to one side, dark green forest circled around. One image taken twenty-five years ago, he said, before the railhead project. The other just four years ago, while the project was still active.

‘What am I supposed to see?’ Ysbel said. ‘They look identical.’

‘That’s the point.’

‘You mean nothing was built there,’ Goodwill said.

‘But what about the construction materials, and the regular supplies?’ Ysbel said.

‘Exactly what I wondered,’ Zaquil said. ‘So I widened the search.’

He put up another image: dark green forest cleaved by the silver lightning stroke of a river.

‘What am I missing this time?’ Ysbel said, after studying the image for a full minute.