Pelter carried on as if neither of them had spoken. ‘Once we’re down, we will need AG transport. You two—’ he pointed at Svent and Dusache ‘—will stay with the bird. Mennecken and Corlackis will go with me to the nearest town.’ He inspected the two mercenaries. ‘I hope you are both in condition enough for the run. I want to be back at the lake within forty hours solstan.’

‘And me?’ Stanton asked.

‘With me, of course,’ said Pelter dismissively, before continuing. ‘There we need to steal two AGCs. It shouldn’t be too much of a problem, but obviously we want to do this quietly.’

Stanton reflected on Pelter’s idea of quiet: that ECS agent screaming in the rusting shell of a wrecked cargo carrier. He thought about Mennecken being quiet in that alley.

‘You said forty hours,’ said Corlackis. ‘Do we have a timescale now?’

‘We have my timescale,’ said Pelter. ‘I want our preparations done as soon as possible. I want to be here when that bastard arrives.’

‘And you’re sure he will arrive,’ said Corlackis. It was one question too far and Corlackis turned away from Pelter’s flat stare. ‘Never mind,’ he finished.

‘Within four days I want a base set up a hundred kilometres from the runcible installation. I’ll want Svent and Dusache inside the installation, keeping watch. In that time I’ll need at least one of the AGCs turned into a weapons platform. Now, any pertinent questions?’

‘What kind of force are we likely to be facing?’ asked Stanton.

‘I don’t know. We will know when Agent Cormac comes through. It seems likely that he will bring with him four Sparkind and perhaps some others.’

‘They’re tough,’ said Stanton.

‘But not invulnerable. We have the edge: they will not know we are here.’

‘Will we hit him at the installation? That would be risky,’ said Corlackis.

‘No, my information is that he will be leaving there on some mission away from civilization. We’ll hit him there.’

‘What about extraction?’ asked Corlackis.

‘We may be able to use the runcible. We all have . . . changeable identities. If that option looks too dangerous, Viridian has a large spaceport. We will be able to buy passage,’ said Pelter.

‘We could get Jarvellis to land, and we’d have our exit there,’ said Stanton.

Pelter stared at him for a long moment. ‘Yes, there is that option. In that case it would be a question of price. She knows who we are and would charge accordingly. But anyone at the spaceport would not know, and the cost would be consequently less.’