"Bloody right, boy. Something like this would bring the fruitcakes pouring out of the woodwork. Everyone and his grandmother would want to be loaded into an NN core."

"Somebody outside Event Horizon already knows, though, Grandpa."

"Don't remind me, girl. At least they've not made it public, for whatever reason. Probably afraid of losing whatever advantage they've got over the other kombinates. That'll be something for you to watch for, Juliet, if they do get me. Whichever bastard is the first to put the pressure on you for a low licensing-fee, they're the ones."

"Don't talk like that," she said, quietly insistent. "Nobody's going to get you."

"Are your security programmers trying to backtrack the hotrods behind the blitz?" Greg asked Walshaw.

"Yes, although I don't hold out much hope of success. The hacker community is a hard one to crack, our best chance is if a rumour escapes. Someone bragging, stoned or drunk."

"I'll see what I can do, I have a contact in that area."

"Who?" asked Philip.

"Tell you, you pay me for results, and that's what you'll get. But your money doesn't entitle you to know my sources. Without confidentiality I'd never be able to hang on to them."

"Oh, pardon me." Philip shovelled on the sarcasm, thick and dripping.

"Sounds like a reporter," Julia muttered tartly.

"I'm reassembling the team which built the NN core for you to interview," Walshaw told Greg. "We disbanded them after Mr. Evans was successfully translocated. Shouldn't take more than a day or two. They're all still employed by us."

"Right then, in the meantime I'll get started on the Ranasfari research team," Greg said briskly. "Oh, by the way, Julia?"

She looked up, half smiling, expectant.

"Who've you told that your Grandpa's still intact?"

"No one!" It emerged as an indignant squawk. Her mind flamed like a solar flare from high-energy outrage. No guilt, no subterfuge.

"How dare you!"

"Sorry, just checking that…"

"He's my grandpa!"

"Juliet, shush. Greg's doing exactly what I asked him here for."

She shut up, but spiked Greg with an evil glare.

He swivelled round to look enquiringly at Walshaw.

"I have never told anybody that Philip Evans's memories are intact, nor that Event Horizon has perfected a giga-conductor," the security chief said formally. True.

"Aren't you going to ask me, boy?"

Julia was suddenly very alert, giving Greg an intent stare, her mind coloured by a strange mix of curiosity and trepidation.

The hairs along the back of Greg's neck pricked up. He concentrated. Right at the edge of perception was a faint nebulous glow. Details were non-existent. Half-life? Half-death? Not a mind as he knew minds. And yet, and yet.

"No," he said eventually.

"Ah well, worth a try." The disembodied voice was utterly devoid of emotional content.