‘He told me about a guy who seems to care about nothing but himself. Something tells me a guy like that—whom nobody seems to have anything good to say about, a guy who can abandon his daughter for over ten years—a guy like that doesn’t just come back after ten years looking for her because he’s feeling like being daddy. He swore revenge on you, remember? So if he’s taken Theo, it’s to get to you. To you, and Sanctuary.’

He looked musingly at Father. ‘So why take Theo? She’s not your granddaughter, she’s Robert’s. How could taking her possibly hurt you? How, Father?’

‘Because Robert and Father were—’

‘Like brothers? Yes, he told me that. But it certainly doesn’t explain why a man who wants to bring Sanctuary down would go after Theo. And, whatever the reason, there’s more to it than Father and Robert being buddies. Although, that does put me in mind of another thing I’ve been wondering about.’

He turned to Father. ‘You do talk an awful lot about Robert, don’t you? Even that whole story you told me, which was supposed to be about Theo, it had more to do with Robert than her. And the Bosquanet family. You said a lot about that family. Which makes sense, but what doesn’t is that you make almost no mention of Robert’s family. They must have been there, too, when it all happened. But you never spoke of them—any of them—except in passing. It’s almost as if you wanted everyone to focus on Robert and not on his family, like you were trying to drive everyone’s attention away from them. Or, to be more precise, away from his wife. You hardly said a word about her, not even her name. The only thing you let slip was that she didn’t want him to be on the Interface project, and so the whole thing was held up till Zacharias Bosquanet got involved. Isn’t it strange that the most elite scientific project in the world would be delayed for months because of one sentimental wallflower who’s so nondescript that all she rates is a background mention in the story? And another thing. How Robert actually got to the City. You said quite a bit about how he was the logical scapegoat, how everyone wanted to get him, but not how it actually happened.’

‘Look, Albert—’