‘Calculated,’ Stanton replied. ‘The Golem had to stay with Pelter and Mr. Crane. It’ll be the senior here, and the only one capable of dealing with Crane if things went wrong. As they will.’

The man halted out on the slabs and raised his hand. No doubt he was expecting to be allowed into a nice dry car, his watching at an end for a while. Stanton drifted the car so the passenger side would come up to him. Corlackis touched a door control and the window slid down at an angle. He removed from his jacket pocket a fat little gun with a barrel wider than it was long.

‘In the back seat,’ said Stanton. ‘We’ll be needing the room left in the boot.’

‘As you say, John,’ said Corlackis.

They drew abreast of the man and he ducked down to peer in the window, a friendly grin on his face. Stanton felt sure he was about to say something about the weather. But he lost his grin when Corlackis shot him in the face.

‘Shit, we wanted him alive,’ said Stanton.

‘Credit me with some intelligence, John. Short-acting neural poison in pellet form. He won’t be pretty, but he’ll be alive,’ Corlackis replied.

‘Right . . . right,’ said Stanton. He checked his watch, then took a small comunit from his top pocket as the AGC settled. ‘Svent, how is it?’ he asked.

‘He’s heading for the café. We’ll take him there.’

‘Don’t worry if we’re a little late. Mennecken’s gone walkabout after the catadapt,’ said Stanton.

‘That’s OK,’ said Svent. ‘I wanted a coffee anyway. See you shortly.’

Stanton made an adjustment and spoke again. ‘We got all four and are holding them,’ he said.

Pelter’s voice in reply was cold and correct. ‘That was the easy part. Now we have this ECS machine to deal with,’ he said.

‘Where are you now?’

‘I’m at the dump outside the spaceport.’

‘The Golem still with you?’

‘As far as we can ascertain. It is very good. Maybe it has chameleonware.’

‘Need any help?’

‘I have Mr. Crane.’

Stanton shut off the unit. That was all Pelter had wanted him to say. He popped his door and walked round to Corlackis, who was searching the man he had stunned. Corlackis removed a thin-gun which he tossed in beside the one in the passenger foot-well. He then removed a small flat comunit which he studied closely.