Yuti smiled expansively. ‘I wish I could. But that’s your job, is it not? And it’s hard for me to do anything right now, with all this… heat.’

Vongella looked over at Zidarov. He hadn’t been expecting to contribute, but here was an opening.

‘Adeard Terashova,’ Zidarov said. ‘That’s the name that kicked this off. We’d go a long way to playing nicely together if you could let us know where he is now.’

At that, Yuti looked genuinely nonplussed. ‘The Terashova boy? What does he have to do with this?’

‘He was mixed up with the Yezan cell. We know he’s being held somewhere. Give him up, and it’d restore some trust.’

Yuti laughed. He looked at his bodyguards, and shrugged. ‘See, if I knew who any of these people were, or what they had to do with me, I might be able to get this all sorted out.’

‘First Circle Silka would know the name,’ Zidarov said. ‘Is she here?’

Yuti lost his smile. ‘Silka? No, she’s not here, probator. How could she be? Your people killed her.’

Again, that looked genuine. Zidarov almost asked him if he could provide proof, but held back. Things were already tense, and everyone was armed.

Yuti turned back to Vongella. ‘So, you see, we’ve all suffered. This is the business we chose, so I’m not making any special pleading, but we didn’t kill your sanctioner. As a result, I’d appreciate an end to all this… nonsense.’

‘Yes, you made your case,’ Vongella shot back. ‘We’ll take another look, see if there’s anything we missed. But don’t think for a moment I’ll take my finger off the trigger. I’ve got a dozen analysers looking at what Borodina was working on before she was hit, and if any of it leads back to you, or if I get hard evidence of cell-drains in Urgeyena, the word “war” won’t begin to cover it.’

He looked her straight in the eye. ‘I believe you mean that, commander.’

‘Every word,’ said Vongella, looking straight back.

After that, Vongella didn’t hang around. The Zurov’s engines powered up, and the rain skipped and fizzed around the ­turbine intakes.

Yuti and his entourage walked back into the shadows, gradually diminishing into the gusty darkness. The sanctioners watched them go, before backing towards the gunship’s hold, their ­weapons raised the whole time. Vongella wiped the rain from her visor.

‘Worth coming along?’ she asked him.

Zidarov checked the tox-counter. It was worryingly high. ‘Maybe. Do you believe him?’

Vongella laughed. ‘I’ll think about it. We could do with a pause, if only to rearm.’

‘He wanted to talk.’

‘I would do, too, in his position.’