‘Nonetheless, I’ve got good intelligence it’s headed for the Sol system. We can’t allow that to happen.’

‘So what do you plan on doing?’

‘We need to get on board and take control before it can leave.’

Lamoureaux searched his face. ‘You’re serious, aren’t you? What was the point of fighting Jarret, then?’

‘I made the mistake of thinking the people behind him would stick to their own rules. But they were just gambling I’d be the one to wind up dead, and thus solve all their problems.’

Lamoureaux shivered. ‘You haven’t told me exactly where we’d take the Mjollnir.’

‘Did you know Dakota’s still alive?’

Lamoureaux nodded warily. ‘Now that you mention it, yes. I didn’t know until she got in touch with me a few days ago, asking me not to tell anyone. I didn’t even know if she’d told anyone else.’

‘She came to me a few nights ago and said me she wants to take the Mos Hadroch into Emissary territory, to one of their own caches. She claims that’s the only way it can work.’

‘Fly the Mjollnir into Emissary territory? That’s crazy.’

Corso smiled grimly under his mask. ‘If you’ve got any better ideas, I can’t wait to hear them. Because I’ve been doing nothing but trying to think of alternatives and, assuming Dakota isn’t insane or making up stories, I can’t think of any.’

‘Things might be a lot simpler if she was crazy.’

‘She claimed she died out there when she tracked the Maker down,’ Corso told him. ‘That it destroyed her and her ship, but that it somehow preserved her mind and transmitted it to another ship closer to home. I want to know if you think that’s remotely possible.’

‘Shit.’ Lamoureaux stamped his feet a few times on the frozen concrete, and shoved his gloved hands deeper into the recesses of his silvered parka. He stared off into the distance for several moments, towards a couple of rapid-orbit cargo ships idling on the concrete a few kilometres away, steam trickling out from their main nacelles.

‘All right,’ he said at last, ‘you’re worried she’s been hit by whatever’s taken down a lot of other machine-heads. What I would say is that she isn’t any crazier than any of the rest of them, and none of them has shown the least sign of being delusional. And also there are . . . depths to the Magi ships I can’t even begin to explain to someone who hasn’t experienced them. The Magi were verging on godlike when they disappeared, Senator, so I suspect it’s probably the least of the tricks they could pull off.’

He stared past Corso, chewing the inside of a cheek.

‘You’ve got something else on your mind?’