‘Of course we go on,’ interrupted Dakota. ‘We chase Trader all the way there. Why give up now?’

‘You don’t make the decisions here!’ Martinez exploded, stabbing a finger at her. ‘You told us yourself, he’s gone to do the one thing we came here to do. That means our job is over. So we go home.’

‘Look, I don’t know if we can go home,’ said Dakota wearily.

They all stared at her, waiting until she continued.

‘When I was chasing him – chasing Whitecloud, I mean – Trader told me the Emissaries had some way of tracking us.’

‘How do you know that’s true?’ Corso demanded.

‘I didn’t believe him at first, but the fact is those scouts we ran into back there knew just where to find us, out of a truly enormous volume of space. The chances of that being a coincidence are beyond astronomical. Trader said so himself

‘That would make sense out of what happened back at the cache,’ confirmed Perez, from beside her. ‘It felt like an ambush.’

‘Exactly.’ Dakota nodded vigorously. ‘They clearly knew we were coming.’

‘If that’s the case,’ Lamoureaux said slowly, ‘they could be on their way here right now.’

‘Just hold on for one minute,’ said Martinez, moving closer to Dakota. ‘You haven’t told us how they could track us.’

She chose her words carefully as she answered. Some things, she had decided, were better left unsaid for the moment.

‘He told me there was something planted on the frigate that would lead them right to us.’

‘So what does that have to do with Trader taking the artefact?’ asked Perez.

‘He planned on grabbing it for himself once we’d done what we came out here to do,’ she explained. ‘But he panicked when he realized the Emissaries knew how to find us. The way he sees it, we might as well have a bull’s-eye painted on the hull.’

Martinez glared at her. ‘Even if any of this is true, it doesn’t fundamentally alter my original point. There’s no reason for us not to turn back.’

‘Because, even if we did turn back, there’s a good chance the Emissaries would still come after us,’ she snapped. ‘And remember what Whitecloud said: the Mos Hadroch might decide not to let Trader activate it. If that’s true, then it’s imperative we carry on and be ready to finish the job, if we have to.’

Martinez laughed. ‘You really believed that fairy tale?’

‘The Mos Hadroch isn’t just a weapon any more than the Magi ships are just ships,’ Dakota persisted. ‘And Whitecloud might have been an evil son of a bitch, but even you could see he was telling the truth when he recorded that message. Right there at the end, he did one good thing in his life by trying to warn us.’