‘It’s more to do with what is missing than what you cannot see,’ Zaquil said, and a yellow circle appeared beside the river. ‘This part of forest is fake. Or rather, it is part of another image patched onto this. It’s very good work, but not quite good enough to fool me.’

‘What is it hiding?’ Goodwill said. He was peering close at the window, points of green light shining in his dark eyes.

‘The fact that something has been erased,’ Zaquil said. ‘So thoroughly that even I cannot reconstruct it. If you want to find out what it was, you will have to go there and see for yourself.’

‘Where is it?’ Goodwill said.

‘About fifty kilometres due north of the railhead,’ Zaquil said. ‘Across the border, in bear country.’

‘I know one thing about it,’ Ysbel said. ‘If this satellite image was altered to hide something built by Joyous Hightower’s syndicate, it means that some of my people are involved too.’

10.

After Goodwill and Swift went off to organise the gift and other details of the clandestine visit to the Library of All People, Ysbel spent the rest of the morning searching the open records for any mention of pre-First Contact surveys of bear cities, looking everywhere she could but coming up empty. She’d given Zaquil the task of looking for evidence of human involvement in the railhead project, hoping to find something incriminating – a violation of Authority mandates, treaty terms or native custom and law that could be used to persuade Joyous Hightower to give up the name of the map’s new owner. Eventually, the helper told her that he hadn’t found anything in the open records and would have to dig much deeper, search the sealed registers where details of clandestine and highly sensitive projects were kept.

‘I am not the sliver you were making plans with last night. I am the real deal. The true face and the true name. I’m here with you, and I’m in the Gathering Place and I’m on the Moon. If someone has tried to hide the relevant files, I’ll find them sooner or later.’

‘They might be hidden inside the accounts for some other project,’ Ysbel said. ‘Or be entirely off the books.’

She started to explain her idea about the involvement of an Originist group, and Zaquil’s little avatar twinkled at her. ‘I know what to look for, Ysbel. But even for one such as I, these things take time. You must be patient. Meanwhile, is there anything else you need?’

‘I’ve been thinking about the visit to the Library. Can you work up some kind of letter of permission? Something on paper I can wave at the authorities if my presence is questioned.’

‘Of course.’

‘And maybe you can fetch some lunch, too. It doesn’t look like my friends will be back any time soon.’