‘No . . . nothing like that. What are you, a soldier?’ Then the blood flushed out of him as if someone had opened a spigot in his neck. ‘You want it off that badly. There is a way, but you won’t like it.’

I looked at him unflinchingly. ‘Cut my arm off, you mean.’

‘Just the hand. It would only need to be the hand.’

‘No,’ Paladin stated, with a commanding tone. ‘I will not permit this.’

‘Three doors down, on this side of the alley,’ the locksmith said. ‘The Limb Broker. That’s what they do. Take things off, put things on. They’re good. Reliable. Quick and clean.’

‘No,’ Paladin said again.

I turned back to the robot. ‘It’s just flesh and bone. It’s nothing compared to my sister – nothing compared to what she’s already been through.’

‘It’ll cost you more than three quoins,’ the locksmith said.

‘I should charge you for botching this job.’

‘I am against this,’ Paladin said, but with less force than before, as if on some level he’d had resigned himself to my decision. ‘It conflicts with my protective imperative.’

‘You want to protect me,’ I said, ‘you’ll help me with anything that slows down those constables.’

‘Tell them I sent you,’ the locksmith said.

We left the shop. I pressed the bracelet against my belly, as if that might muffle the tracking signal. Paladin swerved ahead of me as we travelled the short distance to the Limb Broker. ‘This is a hastily conceived course of action. We have yet to exhaust all the other possibilities . . .’

‘I don’t see many other possibilities, Paladin. You can’t jam that signal and the locksmith couldn’t get the bracelet off. What are the constables doing now?’

‘They have determined that you are heading for the dock, rather than Incer. Squads are being mobilised to this area. But if we could locate a sealed room, a chamber with metal walls . . .’

‘They’d still have a good idea that I’m in the area, and then it wouldn’t take the constables long to turn the place over. Anyway, I want to get to the dock, not hide in Neural Alley.’

‘Some kind of gauntlet or shroud, with signal-blocking capabilities.’

‘You find a shop that sells something like that, I’ll be right behind you.’

‘A better locksmith.’

‘If you know one, Paladin, shout now.’ I was at the Limb Broker’s window, suppressing an inner shudder as I contemplated the wares and services on display. It had been one thing to share a giggle of horror with my sister, neither of us thinking we’d ever have cause to enter the Limb Broker.

But here I was, a prospective customer.