"That is certainly a theoretical possibility." The shadowy overtones of worry were lifting from Dr. Ranasfari's mind. "I congratulate you, Mr. Mandel."

Greg felt a weight of relief lifting. "I'd like to be kept informed of your progress on analysing the Merlin failure."

"Certainly."

"And if you can't find anything concrete may I suggest chartering an inter-orbit tug to recover it."

"I doubt the expense would be authorised."

"Mission planning will cost nothing. And if I don't come up with any positive leads I'll press Philip Evans to cough up the money."

"I'm sure someone as persuasive as yourself will have no trouble. Good day, Mr. Mandel." Dr. Ranasfari exited with what might have been the ghost of a smile on his mouth.

Gabriel gave him a slow laconic clap, the sound echoing hollowly in the empty gallery, Her eyes were still closed. "I am impressed. That was one of the slickest pieces of seduction I've seen for many a year. Poor Eleanor couldn't have stood a chance."

Greg ignored the crack. "Simple logic. You want wholehearted co-operation, get them on your side. And empathy does have its uses. Like charm, some of us have it."

He slouched on the journalists' seats next to her, letting the foam below the black imitation leather mould itself to his buttocks, and stretched his legs out. Beyond the glass, dismay seemed to be tightening its grip.

"How goes it with Ranasfari's team?"

"Total washout." Her eyes fluttered open. "If you interviewed every one of them all you'd find is a couple who've got a nice racket flogging off Event Horizon equipment and five synthoheads. You were right, Morgan Walshaw knows how to handle security."

"Has to be either the Ministry of Defence, or a mole, then."

"Shaping up that way," she agreed. "So what now?"

"Elimination. My intuition says the Merlin failure and the blitz are related in some way. At the moment the only way I can reconcile the two is if the attack on Philip Evans was intended to divert his attention while the Merlin was hashed up to discredit the giga-conductor."

"That's pretty tenuous, Greg. A few giga-conductor cells which may or may not have failed aren't going to bring the whole enterprise to a grinding halt. The breakdown could've been some kind of freak overspill from the attack on the NN core. That would be a connection of sorts."

"No, the Merlin breakdown wasn't an accident."

Gabriel didn't respond. At least she never questioned his intuition.

"Can you see the result of the failure analysis?" he asked.

"Sorry. Too far in the future from where we are."