No one else was around. He checked the Tzarina over. He kicked his heels. He looked up and down.

The building to the north, a few hundred yards off, must have been magnificent once. Maybe it had been an assembly hall, or some kind of power reactor. You could still see glinting things in the soils around – heavy metals in nuggety heaps, spilled-fuel stains. As he stared at them, he imagined the echoing life of the old place, the booms, the growls, the hammering of metal against metal.

It took him a few moments to realise that the noise was ­getting real. He turned, seeing the pools at his feet start to tremble. Away to the south, something was sweeping towards him, lighting up the horizon with flood-lumens, filling the air with the roar of turbines. After a few moments, the impressions clarified into the boxy outline of a Bastion Zurov, hovering low, looking like some monstrous black insect in the rain, its weaponry and antennae hanging below it. Those things hadn’t been built for either stealth or looks. As the gunship descended to ground level, the gravel was whipped up into flurries, and Zidarov wrapped his coat tighter around him.

The turbines whined away to nothing, and access hatches sprung open. Sanctioners leapt down, helmet-lumens flaring and weapons held ready. Zidarov recognised the livery of the Panthera on the shoulder pads, and saw Adimir striding out among them. Vongella descended a little more gracefully, her face hidden by a rebreather and scarf wrapped around her neck and over her helmet.

‘You made it then,’ she said, not sounding overly pleased about it.

‘Wouldn’t miss it,’ Zidarov said. ‘Where are they?’

‘They’ll be here.’ She came to stand beside him. Her rebreather’s visor looked fogged. ‘Met Yuti before?’

‘Can’t say I have.’

‘He’s an interesting man.’

‘He’s a violent man.’

‘All interesting men are violent.’

‘Is that right? You might need to walk me through that one.’

Before she could answer, lights went on amid the ruins of the north building. Zidarov tensed immediately, wishing he’d had time to book proper protection from the armoury rather than his standard flak shirt.

The numbers matched up. Vongella had brought six sanctioners with her, including Adimir, making eight in total from the Bastion. Eight Vidora emerged to face them, on foot, from the ruins. All of them were decked out in what looked like combat clothing. They carried knives openly. A few had lasguns of some kind, but they liked a blade, the Vidora, and in any case the weapons were more for show than use.