‘I’d reckon on a covert group, probably ECS as one of them looks like a Golem.’

‘How the hell do you tell?’ asked Svent.

‘Always too good,’ Stanton replied. ‘They can put scars on the outside, but they show from the inside as well. It’s how you move . . . Here they come.’

‘Bastard!’ Mennecken yelled and pulled off his face cup and glove and slammed them on the table.

‘I make that eight minutes,’ said Corlackis, glancing at the timepiece set in his fingernail. ‘I also make that fifty shillings you owe each of us.’

Mennecken was now looking at Stanton and Pelter. He then turned and looked at Mr. Crane. Corlackis spoke before his brother had a chance to.

‘Notice anything about the clientele of this restaurant?’ he asked.

Mennecken’s glance flicked round, then came back to his brother. ‘Well, here we’ve got the leader of the Separatist cell on Cheyne III, five very obvious mercenaries, and a psychodroid,’ he said.

‘I meant the other clientele, as you well know.’

‘OK, you mean, apart from the four ECS shits sitting over the far side there.’

Corlackis turned to Pelter. ‘You want them taken out?’

Pelter did not answer. He, Dusache and Svent seemed to be having a staring competition. Stanton clamped down on his unease at this. He had one issue to focus on at the moment. He’d leave the one concerning biotech augs to another time.

‘Yes, it would be better if we were not observed,’ Pelter finally said, switching back to Corlackis. ‘Though it may be useful to keep one of the humans alive for a chat.’

Corlackis nodded and turned to Stanton. ‘A Golem, you say? Which one?’ he asked.

‘The one with the long black hair. Probably a Twenty to Twenty-five. Might be others there of a higher series, but they can be difficult to spot sometimes,’ Stanton replied.

To Pelter, Corlackis said, ‘Then perhaps we do need the hardware.’ He looked up at Mr. Crane. ‘The questions now remain: where, when, and how? Any suggestions?’

‘Whack ’em here and we got ten thousand in bribes to pay,’ said Svent.

Pelter said, ‘We will all return to your metrotel. Stanton and myself will book rooms. There are four of them and they cannot follow us all.’ He turned to Svent and Dusache. ‘You two will slip away at some point to reconnoitre. I want to know where they go, what they do. I want to know if they set up some kind of watching station. I also want to know if there are any more of them.’ He now addressed them all. ‘We will hit them during the brief night here. We will do it quietly and we will dispose of the remains.’

Stanton nodded in agreement with this, but could not help wondering if what Pelter had just said to Svent and Dusache had needed to be spoken out loud.