‘I want you to stop,’ Saul replied, taking a firmer grip on the Cobra. Targeting overlays appeared in front of him, flashing red because he was aiming at a friendly target. ‘Right now, sir.’

Hanover paused, then his shoulders rose and fell in a sigh before he turned to face Saul fully. ‘I knew why they sent you the moment I heard you were coming,’ he said, his tone bitter. ‘Do you like playing the part of a spy, Mr Dumont? Is it everything you hoped it would be?’

‘Why are you destroying evidence?’

‘Mitch is a good man,’ Hanover replied. ‘A thousand times better than you could ever hope to be. Poor bastard was just in the wron place at the wrong time. But, I guess, if it wasn’t you coming after me, it would be someone else. I actually let myself think it might not happen, but here we are.’

He held one hand up to Saul, palm facing outwards, while slowly reaching into a breast pocket with his other hand, and withdrawing a slim black oblong.

‘What is that?’ Saul demanded, training his rifle on Hanover’s chest.

‘Fast-acting incendiary,’ Hanover replied. ‘It’ll turn this office into an inferno in seconds. You won’t want to be here when that happens, believe me.’

‘I want you to put it back in your pocket, sir. You won’t be needing it.’

Hanover smiled and flipped the black object into the air, catching it again on its way down a moment later.

Saul’s heart leaped into his mouth, and he took a step back towards the door.

‘You know why you were sent after me?’ Hanover asked, kneeling to place the incendiary on top of the untidy mound of paper. ‘Because the ASI is looking for someone to blame for this whole fucking mess. But I’m not going to be anybody’s scapegoat, when the end comes.’

Saul’s hands felt warm and damp where they gripped the Cobra. ‘If I have to, sir, I will shoot.’

‘I want you to take a message back to whoever’s paying you, and it’s this: as long as they let me and my family go through to the colonies, I won’t tell the Sphere anything about what’s been really going on. Otherwise, I tell them everything I know: about Tau Ceti, the Founders, the Pacific growth . . . everything. They can’t blame me for whatever happened to that shipment, when it should never have been brought to Earth in the first place. Do you understand me?’

Saul frowned. He had no idea what Hanover was talking about.

Hanover held the incendiary delicately at both ends. ‘See this strip of red paper here, on the side?’ he asked, eyeing Saul. ‘Ten-second timer.’ He took hold of one end of the red strip. ‘You just pull it back, then run like hell.’