Mordach sighed. ‘It was always a marriage of convenience, as you no doubt detected. I thought the brand was strong enough to hold things together. She was on the road to ruin when I met her – you knew that? Crippled with debts, ready to lose it all. I never revealed it – that was our deal. In return, she never revealed the truth about Adeard, that he wasn’t hers. Amid all the rest of the treachery, those two things were sacred. It hardly matters now.’

‘But you moved first, didn’t you?’ asked Zidarov. ‘You and Adeard – you were going to work with the cartels on this thing. Their muscle, your cargo contracts. Was that the deal?’

‘Yes, roughly. I didn’t like it. We make most of our slate through legal – or mostly legal – means. Adeard was the keenest.’ Mordach looked down at his hands. ‘It gave him something to do. He could supply the subjects.’

‘And you never had qualms.’

‘It was business. Just business.’

‘You know what the procedure involves?’

‘A little.’

Zidarov didn’t find himself in the mood to go easy. ‘They bleed to death. That’s the principle. Over days, in agony. You were going to profit from that.’

‘There’s a product. There’s a market.’

The coldness, the detachment. It was almost superhuman.

Zidarov shook his head. He glanced up at the storm outside. It looked to be getting worse – the thick glass panes were already being lashed with thick streaks of rain.

‘Anyway, she played us both,’ Zidarov said. ‘Lascile and her. It’s still going on. I’d like to stop it.’

‘Good luck with that.’

‘You could help me.’

Mordach laughed. ‘With what, probator? I’ve got a fight to hold on to what I still have. Avro always fought me. Now he’s going to keep on coming, keep on coming. Will I weather it? Who knows. She will tell him what I planned, what the finances are, where the bodies are buried. It’s all unravelled rather fast.’

‘I tried to speak to her.’

‘And she didn’t answer.’ Mordach smiled sadly. ‘You’re no more use to her, now you’ve played your part. And if you did get to her, like you got to me, you wouldn’t get away again. Walk away, probator. Walk away.’

‘Yes, that’s the advice I’ve been getting.’

‘I don’t think you’ll take it.’

Zidarov shifted in his seat. It was uncomfortable. What was it with these hyper-expensive chairs that made them so damned hard to sit in? ‘You know when you have a feeling? An itch. Something you can’t shake. I guess that’s how people like you operate, sometimes – hunches, urges. I’ve got one now. But I don’t know what it means. I don’t even know what to ask.’

Mordach raised an eyebrow. ‘Then I don’t think I can be much use to you, can I?’