‘He died, months before they retrieved you,’ Casey explained. ‘They brought you in to replace him, just to remind the rest of us how utterly fucking disposable the rest of us really are.’

‘Casey,’ said Winifred, a warning in her voice. Haden stood by her, his face expressionless as he listened.

‘It’s true, goddammit,’ Casey snapped at her. ‘He might as well know the truth.’ He turned back to me. ‘Any one of us can be replaced just as easily. Far as the Authority’s concerned, we’re an easily renewable resource, there for the taking, and we’re all just so goddam grateful to work for the cocksuckers regardless.’

Haden finally stepped forward and spoke. ‘Look, we’re a long way from home, and this isn’t exactly the time and place for a discussion. Maybe we should get out of here to safety before any more of those creatures turn up?’

We rode the rest of the way to the transfer stage in silence. Oskar sat next to me in the back of the SUV, and we never spoke once.

Part of me kept wanting to believe I was the butt of a cruel joke. Casey and Winifred sat in the front and tried to fill the silence with conversation about everything that had happened since they had lost contact with us. I made the occasional grunt of acknowledgement, but I didn’t feel at all like talking, and clearly neither did Oskar.

‘First the drones went down,’ Winifred said. ‘That was the first real sign of trouble. Looked like some kind of software malfunction.’

Casey swore under his breath. ‘Damn things are a waste of time, if you ask me, the number of times they break down.’

‘Then our communications got scrambled,’ Winifred continued. ‘We’ve had equipment problems before, but this is the worst yet.’

‘Shitty Authority gear yet again,’ growled Casey. ‘You couldn’t ask for a clearer sign they really don’t give a crap about us.’

‘Why didn’t any of you tell me before?’ I asked.

Casey and Winifred exchanged a glance.

‘We weren’t supposed to say anything to you about it,’ said Winifred, after a pause. ‘Not a word.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because we were warned we’d lose our retirement privileges if we did,’ said Oskar, speaking for the first time since Winifred had knocked him to the ground.

I forced myself to meet his eyes again. ‘I meant what I said. I’m sorry about Lucky.’

His eyes dipped down, and I saw they were glistening with tears. ‘Me too,’ he said.

Casey and Winifred resumed their narration of events during our absence, and I listened without commenting. We had, they said, had the bad luck to get caught between two opposing night patrols from rival Hives, each intent on destroying the other.