‘You have them all, as instructed?’ Pelter asked.

‘More or less,’ Stanton replied.

‘And by that you mean?’ Pelter asked.

‘We got them all, and we’ve got your live one.’

Pelter stared at him for a long moment, then abruptly turned to Svent and Dusache. He pointed. ‘In that old carrier over there. Strip him and tie him.’

The two dragged the still-stunned man out of the car and dragged him off towards the carrier.

‘Mennecken,’ Pelter said. ‘Bury the bodies and lose the car. I want nothing found while we’re here. John, Corlackis—with me.’

Mennecken got into the driver’s seat and took the car away, while the three others moved over to the carrier. After a moment Crane jerked as if he had just woken, and he followed them. They entered the carrier through a rusting split in the thin wall. It was essentially a small room with alloy walls and a dirt floor thick with the black growths seen in the town. The two had stripped the man by the time they arrived, and were tying his wrists and ankles. His wrists they secured to stanchion along one wall. Dusache cracked a low-luminosity chemical light and jammed it into a rusting crevice.

‘Now we see what he knows,’ said Pelter.

Stanton studied the object Pelter pulled from his pocket. It was something the Separatist had acquired from that weird shit Grendel. Knowing what was about to ensue, Stanton wondered if it was entirely necessary.

* * *

‘I knew you . . . from Cheyne III,’ the man said as he fought to regain his breath.

‘And?’ said Pelter.

Stanton thought the Separatist was taking a bit of a risk sucking on the end of the inducer like it was a pen. You could never tell whether or not the things were on or off until you touched someone with them. Then that someone would certainly know. Mennecken would have wanted to carve the ECS agent up with a knife, but the simple fact was that an inducer hurt more, and the person you were torturing would stay alive longer because there would be no blood loss.

‘That’s it: I saw you and I told Jill. She was setting us up to watch you so she could call for instructions and back-up.’

‘You think I believe that?’

‘It’s true, why not? Oh, come on! I’m telling you the truth!’

The man’s next scream lasted a long time as Pelter drew the blunt nose of the inducer up his inner thigh and touched it to his genitals. When the inducer was withdrawn he was hunched forwards and sobbing. Stanton pulled his pulse-gun from his coat and pointed it at the man’s head. Pelter pushed the gun aside.

‘I haven’t finished yet,’ he said.