‘All right, I’ll assume it’s the truth. How do I react to that truth?’ Cormac asked.

‘Your decision,’ said Blegg. ‘You’re in command here.’

Cormac snorted and studied Thorn. The Sparkind had a tightly controlled look to him. He averted his eyes from Cormac, then stared down at his hands. Abruptly he stood up and moved off into the wing of the shuttle.

‘My decision would be to get some sort of recompense for the deaths of ten thousand people. Of course, I would have to go to Viridian to get . . . recompense,’ said Cormac.

‘Viridian, yes,’ said Blegg, a hint of a nasty smile on his face. ‘Funny thing about that place: lot of activity there.’

Cormac felt a sinking sensation. There was more. There was always more.

Blegg went on. ‘On Cheyne you killed Angelina Pelter.’

‘I did. What has that to do with this?’

‘Young Arian shut things down,’ Blegg said.

‘How do you mean?’

‘You gave your testimony. None of the cell leaders was apprehended. Every one of them was killed by a metal-skin android.’

‘They had one . . . broken Golem?’

‘Very likely. We don’t know. Neither Pelter nor the android were apprehended either.’

‘Go on.’

‘Prior to these deaths, as I believe you know, Pelter managed to withdraw Separatist funds and his entire personal fortune from the Cheyne III Norver Bank. Shortly after those deaths the local police chased an AGC to the spaceport. It had, supposedly, Pelter and John Stanton aboard. The shuttle crashed and exploded. It took the police two solstan days to discover that the bodies they recovered were not those of Pelter or Stanton. A little retrospective investigation revealed that a trispherical craft called the Lyric launched just after the explosion. Your back-up team there was beginning to take an interest in this craft. It was, ostensibly, insystem and light cargo, only it had an underspace engine.’

Blegg looked round as Thorn returned. The Sparkind brought back three coffees. One he placed where he was sitting. The other two he handed to Cormac and Blegg. Cormac pulled the tab on his coffee and wondered why Blegg was studying the soldier so intently.

‘Thank you, Thorn,’ said Blegg. ‘You know that personal agendas cannot be allowed.’

‘I know,’ said Thorn.

Blegg returned his attention to Cormac. ‘You know Huma?’ he asked.

Blegg’s face was so close Cormac could see the strange gold flecks in the irises of his eyes. His breath smelt of garlic.

‘It’s where the arms were being smuggled in from. The Lyric went there?’

Blegg smiled. ‘Yes, Pelter and Stanton were seen recruiting four mercenaries, and they had the android with them. This was information we recovered from what remained of a Golem ECS agent called Jill. The rest of her team has not yet been found. Pelter had them killed.’

‘You sure?’

‘Y’need to ask that?’

‘I guess not. I still don’t see how this all relates.’