A real live avenging angel.

After Julia towelled herself down, she chose a plain black cotton vest dress from her wardrobe; it seemed apt somehow, right for a born-again human, one with faith in herself, her pure self, unaugmented.

A big man called Ben was waiting for her in the bedroom when she came out of the bathroom, ruthlessly combing knots from her still-damp hair. She gave him a tight smile and he responded with a brief nod. Polite and respectful, perfect for a personal bodyguard. But then with Morgan choosing them, they all were.

"How are you feeling?" Rachel asked.

"Still a bit dazed. It's fading though. Remembering things isn't so difficult now." Julia slipped a couple of big butterfly clips into her hair. "Let's go."

Her bedroom door was splintered around the lock. All Wilholm's locks had been glitched by the virus. She nearly got the shakes again when she thought about that. If they hadn't been glitched, Steven would have just walked straight in. Luck, or chance. Fate.

Rachel walked beside her, Ben taking up position a couple of paces behind. At least she didn't have to be shown the way to the study, that was too ingrained. But she simply couldn't match a name to the face of one of the manor's anxious-looking domestic staff as they walked past. It was definitely a member of staff, though. That was something.

"Thank you, Rachel," she said, suddenly shy.

"What for? You did all the work. Even after all you'd been through you held it together just perfect. Most of us would've gone completely to pieces. By rights you ought to sack the lot of us. Some bodyguard I turned out to be."

"No. Steven wasn't your fault. How could we have known?"

"It's my job to be suspicious. All that sudden calling in sick every time your psychic friend Mandel turned up. I should have known."

Julia frowned. That couldn't be right. Greg and Steven were both working for Kendric. Weren't they? She requested a logic matrix. "Oh," she sighed in disappointment. The loss of the nodes was going to take some getting used to.

"I don't want you to worry any more," Rachel said. "No greasy little hardline tekmerc is going to get near you. Not with us here."

Julia could see Rachel was bottling up a core of hearty excitement, almost as if she relished the prospect of a tekmerc attack. It sent little roots of doubt into Julia's mood, because it made her seem like nothing more than an excuse for the two sides to let fly at one another, they enjoyed it.

"Isn't that right, Ben?" Rachel called over her shoulder.

"God's honest truth, Miss Evans."

Julia turned at the unexpectedly mellow voice, giving an embarrassed little grin. "That's just Julia, please."

He nodded warmly.