‘Jesus. And you’ve no idea why they killed him?’

Saul shook his head. ‘Let’s just say it was all pretty rough on Mitchell, so when he said he wanted me to go along on that jump, six months later, I didn’t really feel up to saying no.’

‘I had no idea.’

‘Yeah, well, it’s like you said. We were all moving in different circles by then.’

Saul stood up and gazed down at her. ‘Look, I’m sorry about the way things worked out for us both, but talking to you this way brings back too many bad memories. Deanna would never have gone to live on Galileo if it hadn’t been for us two.’

‘Saul—’

‘Please,’ he insisted, ‘just hurry the hell up and tell me whatever it is you came here to say, otherwise I’m gone.’

She crumpled slightly, and he could see lines around her eyes showing how much older she’d become since he’d last set eyes on her.

‘Just give me one minute.’ She patted his vacated stool.

He slid back down on to the seat with evident reluctance, keeping one foot planted on the floor. ‘Make it quick.’

‘Like I said, I’m here because of Jeff. We had a reconciliation, just in the last year or two.’

Saul couldn’t hide his surprise. ‘Seriously?’

‘I know.’ She smiled wryly. ‘Took both of us by surprise, too. Most of that time he’s been involved in some kind of off-world research that takes him away for weeks or even months at a stretch, so it’s not like we really get to see that much of each other.’ She licked her lips and took a deep breath. ‘The thing is, now he’s disappeared.’

‘Disappeared?’

‘More than a week ago. I knew for a good long while that there was something on his mind, something to do with his work, but he wouldn’t talk about it.’

‘Maybe he couldn’t talk about it? The ASI had him working on a lot of high-security research projects, didn’t they?’

She shrugged. ‘I guess so. Thing is, we’d planned on spending some time together when he got back from his last trip out. Instead he cancelled everything and told me he was heading off somewhere on his own. He wouldn’t tell me whygood long I could tell that something bad had happened.’

Saul finally lifted his foot off the floor, and shifted himself into a more comfortable position. He was curious, despite himself. ‘And you haven’t heard from him since?’

‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘Here’s the thing, though. Two different people contacted me since he vanished, both desperate to find him. The way they talked made me sure he was in some kind of trouble.’