Angie Kirkpatrick sat on the other side of the desk from Greg and Morgan Walshaw, her expression of polite expectation carefully composed. Julia knew something was wrong straight away. Kirkpatrick probably wasn't aware of it, she had nothing to compare her interview to. But Julia could see Greg was sitting straighter, more attentive. Morgan Walshaw had picked up on Greg's state, too. Julia studied Kirkpatrick closely, still unable to see any evidence of culpability.

"We're investigating the high contamination level of memox crystals coming out of Zanthus," Greg said. "But then you guessed that, didn't you?"

"The contamination has been quite high," Angie said.

"Wrong answer," said Greg. "How long have you been working the spoiler?"

"What?"

"The whole eight months?"

"I don't know—"

"Seven months?"

"Listen!"

"Six?"

"Hey, you can't just—"

"Five?"

"Start accusing me—"

Greg leaned back in his chair and smiled. Julia was very glad she wasn't receiving that smile, it was predatory.

"Five months," said Greg, a simple statement of fact.

"This… What is this?" Angie demanded. She was looking straight at Morgan Walshaw.

"It's word association," Greg said. "I say a word, and I watch to see how your mind reacts. Is there stress and guilt, or is there merely innocent confusion? It doesn't matter what your verbal answer is, your thoughts don't lie."

Julia almost felt a pang of sympathy for the woman. Betrayed by her own soul. Greg's ability was eerie, silent, unfelt, and devastatingly accurate. A whole heritage of fear was built around people who could divine thoughts. Quite rightly, surely everyone was entitled to some core of privacy. She pulled her cardigan tighter over her shoulders.

"Stress and guilt, that's what peaked at five months," Greg said.

"You've got a gland," Angie said. Her defiance had gone.

"That's right."

She flushed hard. "I… I hadn't got any choice. They knew. Things. About me. Christ, I don't know how they found out."

"Just give us the details," said Walshaw, sounding bored, or perhaps weary.

"What'll happen?" Angie asked.

"To you? We probably won't prosecute, if you're being truthful about them blackmailing you. But you won't ever work in orbit again, not for anyone, we'll make quite sure of that."

"I didn't have any choice!"

"You could've come to us, we could've set a counter trap."

"I don't know. There's no difference between you, any of you. People like me, well, it's not fair."

"Never is," Walshaw muttered.

Watching Angie hunching in on herself, Julia realised the woman had already submitted, the fight had gone out of her. She was going to do exactly what Walshaw told her to. What an awesome reputation psychics had, that even their presence could sap the will like that. No wonder the PSP had been so troubled about the animosity of the Mindstar Brigade veterans.

"How did they turn you?" Greg asked.

Angie flinched when he spoke. "Are you still looking into my mind?"

"Yes."