But Pakt, when he arrived a few minutes later, merely nodded when he saw them sitting in his office. The big guldman looked exhausted, his pale skin stretched and blotchy, his copper hair barely combed. It occurred to Nolan to wonder how old Pakt was. Today, he looked eighty. Normally he looked twenty-five years younger. It must be even worse than he and Melina suspected.

“Is she here?” were Pakt’s first words. Melina shook her head. “All right. What do you know? What did you hear?”

“Nothing. Except that bit about dishonor,” Melina said.

“That’s the least of it,” Pakt said.

“Well, tell us. If you can.”

Pakt dropped heavily into his own chair behind his desk and rubbed his big hand across his forehead. “Cerisa caught Colt going to visit Jex Zanlan,” he said.

“Oh, no,” Melina said.

“How did she catch him?” Nolan asked.

“Apparently, she had some suspicion that Colt had been to see Jex before. She briefed the guard, and she monitored Colt’s lunch hours. She was up there yesterday when Colt dropped by for a visit.”

“I suppose that’s the end of Colt, then,” Melina murmured.

Nolan was wholly confused. “What? So what? Why does she care who visits Jex Zanlan? What’s it to her?”

Melina shot him a pitying look; Pakt regarded him somberly. “Jex Zanlan is a known criminal, incarcerated for crimes against the city. Colt is a city employee, and city employees are not allowed to fraternize with felons. If you didn’t know that, you should.”

“I don’t know any felons,” Nolan said. “But if I did—I still don’t get it. I didn’t even know Colt was friends with Jex Zanlan.”

“He wasn’t,” Melina said briefly. “I asked him that once, a few months back. He’d never met him.”

“But then—” Nolan felt a nightmarish incomprehension; none of this made sense.

“Jex Zanlan is a terrorist,” Melina said in a patient voice. “He and his friends have already blown up at least two buildings, though they’ve never proved he had anything to do with the fire at the Carbonnier Extension. If Colt never knew him before, he only knows him now by association. He’s made friends with Jex’s terrorist friends living in the city. Is that the way it goes, Pakt?”

Pakt nodded. “That’s the way Cerisa sees it. Frankly, I can’t read it any other way myself.”

“And if he only knows Jex through these terrorist friends,” Melina continued, her voice growing smaller and softer, “what reason could he have for visiting Jex in prison? What information could he have been trying to pass to Chay Zanlan’s son?”

Nolan spread his hands, a gesture of ignorance. “I can’t imagine! What information? What could Colt know that would matter to Jex—or anyone?”