It wasn’t much of a plan – its chances of success were slim, and however it worked out she’d still have to answer for trespassing in the Library’s stacks – but if she was able to get at the truth of the matter it might be enough to save her. The decision eased her sense of helplessness and vulnerability, gave her the feeling that she had taken back some control. She stretched out on the bench as best she could and must have dozed off, because she jerked awake when the window opened again. There was a view of ocean waves rolling out to the horizon under a blue sky stacked with white clouds, and something flying above the waves, approaching at speed.

A fly-speck, a flung ball, a floating head. The head of Zaquil’s avatar. His twinkling smile filling the window, his voice saying merrily, ‘Don’t worry! I’m here to help!’

13.

Ysbel squashed the impulse to stand up when the door of the pod puckered back, told Zaquil that she wasn’t going to leave until she had the answers to some questions.

‘The window for escape is small and rapidly shrinking, so it would be best to defer those questions for now,’ the helper said. ‘I have spoofed external connections, and borrowed a security bot from the embassy. Darts from its array of non-lethal weaponry have rendered your captors unconscious, but they will not be unconscious for long, and I cannot stick them again because another dose of incapacitant might be lethal.’

Ysbel crossed her arms and gave Zaquil’s image a hard stare. ‘There are things I need to know. To begin with, are you really working for Mother?’

‘Now and always.’

‘Do you know what she wants? Not what she asked me to do, but the real point of all of this.’

‘There’s a question.’

‘If you don’t know,’ Ysbel said, ‘there’s no shame in admitting it.’

‘I was tasked to help you to find out the truth about the map. I do not know why. But if I am permitted to speculate?’

‘Go ahead.’

‘Aside from the implications for the relationship between humans and natives, Mother may be interested in the possibility that another seedship returned to Earth before she did. In what its Mother may have done, and what may have happened to it.’

‘I suppose that’s possible,’ Ysbel said, thinking of the radio telescope Mother had constructed on the far side of the Moon.

‘It is a best guess based on available information,’ Zaquil said. ‘Are we done now? Your captors will wake soon.’

‘What do you know about Damage Limitation, the agency they work for? And Kirder Halmasdaughter, the woman who seems to be in charge of it.’