Zidarov holstered the gun, and closed the outer door. Then he shambled along the corridor and into the kitchen. ‘I could ask you the same thing.’ He went to the cold-storage, and looked for a carb-bar. There weren’t any, so he grabbed a jeneza and flipped off the stopper.

Milija had been eating. ‘I tried to contact you,’ she said.

‘You did?’

‘Something wrong with your comms?’

Zidarov checked, and suddenly remembered – he’d turned off non-criticals when he’d been with Borodina. Shit, that was almost twenty hours ago. What was happening to him? He activated it, and saw the flood of databursts come in, many of them from Milija.

‘Hells, sorry,’ he said. ‘I’ve been… busy.’

Milija looked at him flatly. ‘You and me both. I needed to get away, just for a few minutes.’

She did look tired. Zidarov felt an urge to go to her, then – to put his big arms around her, press his face into her hair, tell her that things had been rough, but they’d get better. It had been a while since he’d held her properly. Once, they’d never let a day go by without it.

She got up, carrying a plate and a glass, and brushed past him on the way to the auto-cleaner. ‘Naxi’s gone again.’

‘Gone?’

‘I mean, she slept here, but she’s hardly been around.’ Milija leaned back against the countertop, reached up and started to retie her hair. ‘I’m worried. She was angry, and when I spoke to her last, getting angrier. She’s saying all sorts about faith and duty – they really lay it on, don’t they?’

Zidarov chuckled. ‘She’s young. She’ll learn.’

‘Yeah, but I want to keep her alive until she does.’ She shook her head. Zidarov had rarely seen her look so distracted. ‘There’s bad people. In the city. Who knows who she talks to? I don’t. Do you?’

‘You know what it’s like – getting her to tell you anything.’

‘It didn’t used to be like that.’

‘She’s all grown up now. They want to give her a lasgun.’

Milija blinked back tears. ‘Yeah. Too fast. And they’ve got their claws in now, and we’re going to lose her.’ He moved over to her, put an arm out, and she angrily brushed it aside. ‘No. I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want you to tell me to calm down, that it’ll be all right. I’m tired, now, and I’m angry.’

Zidarov knew how she felt. It was getting hard to focus. ‘So, I’ll try to–’

‘When? When will you talk to her? When are you ever here?’ She shook her head, wiped her eyes. ‘Throne, you must think I’m stupid. You disappear for hours, your comm-link off.’

‘It was a mistake.’