Corso nodded, and rubbed the bridge of his nose. ‘I think I know what you’re going to say. He’s the only other one on board with an implant, so maybe he can also be compromised.’

Lamoureaux nodded. ‘Uchidan implant technology isn’t so very different from what I’ve got in my head.’

‘I thought the Uchidan technology was a lot more limited?’

‘Sure, extremely limited,’ Lamoureaux confirmed. ‘No localized environmental data, no ability to interface with any machinery outside of a dedicated transceiver, and even then only in the crudest possible way. I could stand right next to him and I wouldn’t be able to tell if there’s anything lodged in his brain, but that wouldn’t necessarily mean he isn’t vulnerable to outside control. I mean, I don’t know whether it can be done, but that’s not the same thing as saying it can’t.’

‘You’ve got to admit,’ said Corso, ‘it’d be kind of ironic if that did turn out to be the case.’

‘Ironic how?’

‘He’s at least partly responsible for what happened at Port Gabriel, so it’d be a kind of karmic justice, don’t you think?’

‘Maybe.’ The corner of Lamoureaux’s mouth twitched slightly. ‘I’ll have to admit I hadn’t thought of that.’

Corso nodded in the direction they’d been heading. ‘We should get back to the bridge now,’ he said, pushing away from the bulkhead they had paused to rest against.

‘Lucas, wait. I didn’t just want to talk to you about Whitecloud.’

Corso grabbed a rung, before he could drift too far ahead. ‘What then?’

‘I mean Olivarri. Your aides asked me some questions about him when we were back at Ocean’s Deep.’

‘What kind of questions?’

‘About who I might have seen him talking to.’

Corso frowned. ‘Ray Willis was Olivarri’s boss. He’d have told me if something was wrong.’

‘I had the impression they were just feeling something out, like there was just the merest suggestion of irregularities. That’s what Nisha said to me.’

‘Why are you telling me this now?’

‘It’s not too late to send a signal back to Ocean’s Deep. I don’t know what’s happened to Nisha or Yugo since the Legislate took over, but maybe one of them might still be in a position to help us run a deeper background check on him.’

‘I don’t know,’ said Corso. ‘It’s going to use a lot of power to boost a signal that far.’

‘Sure,’ Lamoureaux agreed. ‘But on the other hand we might find out why someone wanted him dead.’

Chapter Twenty-six