‘You’ve seen those same things on the news feeds. There are hundreds of hours of these recordings, much of it showing what appears to be a ruined and lifeless Earth – lifeless, that is, apart from the growths. Eren may be happy to deny the evidence of his eyes, but I cannot. These are things that have not happened yet – but obviously will.’

Something occurred to Saul. ‘You said Farad died somewhere near here. Did you recover his contacts?’

‘Yes.’ Narendra nodded warily. ‘Why? Because you think they might have recorded the face of his killer?’

Assassination had become a much harder business once UP-enabled contacts had become a mainstream form of communication, since they were capable of recording their wearer’s last moments. ‘That crossed my mind, yes,’ said Saul. ‘If the ASI were really behind the hit, they’d have made recovering the victim’s contacts a priority.’

‘You’re assuming Farad’s killer came face to face with him,’ Narendra pointed out. ‘Or that the killer hadn’t disguised himself in some way.’

‘That’s why Eren thinks I’m here, isn’t it?’ Saul muttered. ‘He thinks I was sent to recover the files Farad stole.’

Narendra’s expression told him he’d guessed right. ‘We guarded Farad very carefully on his return,’ said Narendra, ‘but he was killed despite our best attempts.’

‘So do you know who did it?’

Narendra turned back to the TriView projection and skipped through a series of menus. After a couple of seconds, Saul recognized the streets of Sophia, from the viewpoint, again, of someone wearing contacts.

‘You are witnessing the last minutes of my brother’s life,’ Narendra explained, his expression sour.

From the way the view shifted around, it was clear that Maalouf was casting darting glances all around. He was accompanied by three grim-faced men, Eren amongst them, and it was late at night. The giant struts supporting the city’s canopy curved overhead like white bones. The four men crossed a street quickly, all of them shooting glances here and there, as if they were being hunted.

Saul flinched instinctively as the first shots rang out. He saw one of the three men accompanying Maalouf drop to the ground, blood pouring from one side of his head. Maalouf either started to run, or was dragged, in the direction of a doorway. Saul caught a brief glimpse of a van skidding to a halt nearby, its tyres screaming on the tarmac.

Donohue and another man, both armed with Cobras, jumped out of the van and began shooting. Farad’s viewpoint spun wildly, then ceased moving, showing nothing but the evening stars and the dark limb of Al-Khiba far overhead. Saul then caught sight of Eren backing into the same doorway, stepping over Maaloufrn,&os body before he crouched down to return fire.