‘I don’t know if this is a good time.’

‘Won’t ever be a good time, Fura. We’ll make it quick. Could’ve knocked me halfway to Trevenza when Trusko dragged you into the galley. We were all set to leave. I’d convinced myself you weren’t going to have anything more to do with old Proz. What was the change of heart?’

‘You don’t want to know about the hand first?’

‘We’ll get to the hand.’

‘I didn’t get your message. Not for weeks. By the time I did, I was being drugged and held prisoner in my own house. I only just got out, and I left a righteous trail of chaos getting here. But I made it. Trusko doesn’t have any idea what I am. Or what you are, for that matter.’

‘No, but if you keep butterin’ on that ship slang like it’s just goin’ out of fashion, he soon will. Listen to you. Ain’t this, ain’t that, and get the gob on me, with all my worldly experience!’

‘I’m just doing my best to try to blend in.’

‘Try a bit less, in that case. All right, we may as well get to it. What happened to the hand?’

‘Did that shock you?’

‘Can’t say there’s much capable of shockin’ me lately, Fura. But you gave me a good shake when you turned up with tin fingers.’

‘I had them take my hand off in Neural Alley. Cost me sixty bar quoins, too.’ Realising that this was no kind of explanation, I went on: ‘I had a tracking device on me. Couldn’t get it off. If I hadn’t done this, I’d never have made it to the dock. Vidin Quindar was coming after me.’

‘Let me see the hand. Did it hurt much?’

I reached out to her. ‘No, it wasn’t too bad. Not that bit, anyway. But it’s been tingling and throbbing ever since. Can’t say it’s pain, but it’s not too nice either. I think that’s the connections growing across the stump. I can’t make it do much yet, but they told me I should keep trying. My main worry is someone asking too many questions about it, and me having to explain how I came by it.’

Prozor ran a nail down the green inlay. ‘It’s a pretty hand.’

‘That’s what Surt said. Then she said the hand was prettier than the rest of me.’

‘Surt’s an idiot. Most of ’em are idiots. Been crewing long enough to plumb ’em out, and there’s not much to plumb.’

‘Drozna seemed all right. Then again it was Drozna asking me too much about the arm.’