‘Are you sure you should be doing that?’ Dakota asked.

‘Fuck it, it’s been, what – two days now?’ He winced as he lowered his feet to the floor. ‘I don’t know what the hell might have been happening in the meantime.’

He padded naked over to a locker, grunting in satisfaction when he found his clothes neatly pressed and waiting for him.

Corso started to get dressed, moving slowly and carefully, and clearly still in a great deal of pain. ‘Here’s the way I see it, Dakota. I sent a frigate, which also happens to be one of the Freehold’s few assets of any value, out to a remote location on your say-so. That challenge I just barely survived the other day is one consequence of that decision. Now you’re talking about flying into the heart of a deeply inimical, wildly hostile and considerably more advanced civilization, and attacking what I’d guess to be one of their primary resources. To be frank, it sounds like suicide.’

‘I know how it sounds, but it’s the only way to get the Mos Hadroch to function the way it’s intended to.’

‘And just what is that?’ he asked, stepping closer. ‘You mentioned something about a “vulnerability”.’

In that moment Dakota herself looked as small, frail and vulnerable as he’d ever seen her. ‘It’s difficult to explain.’

‘I just killed a man, and risked the crew of our flagship on an expedition halfway across the galaxy to track this thing down, and that’s the best you can say?’

‘Let me remind you of the facts,’ she replied, her tone defiant. ‘The Emissaries are already on their way. The swarm is still out there somewhere, looking for the Mos Hadroch. You’re just going to have to take me on trust for now, because I’m pretty much working out things as I go along.’

‘Assuming we really have found the Mos Hadroch,’ he pointed out, ‘and not just an alien corpse.’

She was silent as he finished buttoning his shirt up. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, thinking hard, before turning to her again.

‘Who else knows you’re here on Redstone?’

‘Nobody apart from you and Ted Lamoureaux.’

‘Good, let’s keep it that way.’

‘Why keep it a secret?’

‘Because the more I think about it, the more I think things are going to get very nasty. If my enemies even suspected you were here, they might consider it de facto proof that I was planning an attack on the frigate.’

She slid off the bed and came towards him. ‘And are you?’

‘Let’s say I’ve already been thinking of contingency plans in case things didn’t work out the way I wanted them to.’

‘So when were you thinking of putting them into action?’

Corso stared out at the helical twist of girders that framed the Senate building, before answering, ‘As soon as possible.’

Chapter Fourteen