‘Well, shit,’ said one of the women, ‘that’s exactly what we’re here to do. We got sent back through from Clarke, and—’

‘Shut up, Peggy,’ snapped Bailey, before returning his attention to Saul. ‘Prevent it how?’

‘Emergency destruct protocols,’ said Saul. ‘You know what that means?’

‘I do – and so do you, clearly.’ Bailey pulled out Saul’s keycard to the terminal room and held it up. ‘Mind telling me who gave you the access code?’

‘I got it from Constantin Hanover. He’s a task-force leader. I was about to shut down the whole Array, when you smacked me over the head.’

‘The whole Array?’ Bailey frowned. ‘The only gate you need to shut down is the one leading back to Florida. Why the hell would anyone want to cut off the colonies from each other?’

‘Maybe he’s working for the separatists,’ suggested one of the others. ‘Maybe he’s one of them. Maybe that’s the real reason he was there.’

‘That’s not how it is,’ protested Saul, feeling a surge of panic.

‘But that is what the separatists want, isn’t it?’ Bailey demanded.

The flat grey bricks, Saul suddenly realized, were explosives. Being knocked unconscious had made it hard for him to think clearly. Things were starting to come bk to him now, little recollections and fragments from over the last several days, but some if it was still disconnected, as if all the thoughts and memories gathered in his head had been knocked out of synch and were now struggling to reconnect with each other in the right order.

‘For Christ’s sake,’ said Saul, ‘if you reckon all you need to do is close down the Florida gate, ask yourself why Copernicus City was evacuated! Why even bother doing that, if anyone thought the Moon was going to be safe? Shutting down the Florida gate isn’t going to work.’

‘What the hell makes you so sure?’ said Bailey, his expression still disbelieving.

Saul started to form a reply, then he stopped. I’m sure because I’ve seen into the future, he thought, and realized there was no answer he could offer Bailey that they might accept. He had Jeff’s stolen files, of course, but there wasn’t nearly enough time now to go over all of that.

Bailey nodded, as if Saul’s silence were an admission of guilt. ‘I’m going to need you to give me whatever access code you have, and wherever the hell you got it from.’

‘Is that why you were sent here?’ asked Saul. ‘To shut the Florida gate down?’

‘No, the man we were escorting here was supposed to shut it down, except now he’s dead. We’ve only got one of the pair of codes we need. So give me,’ Bailey snarled through gritted teeth, ‘your fucking code.’

‘I will if you’ll tell me why your truck here is filled with explosives.’