Before the conversation took a swerve it oughtn’t, I went back to one of the other open boxes. I glanced away and back again, until I made out a pile of long, glassy things with thick mid-sections and handles at one end.

Not handles, exactly, I decided.

Grips and stocks and triggers.

I reached into the box, closed my fingers around something tangible. I drew it out. The Ghostie weapon was invisible and as light as if it were carved out of frozen smoke. It still felt as real and solid in my fingers as any crossbow.

‘Guns,’ I said. ‘Ghostie guns.’

Trusko didn’t say anything for a few moments. I could hear his breathing over the squawk. We were all breathing fast, lugging twice our usual weight around, and the prickly feeling of the vaults wasn’t doing anything to settle our nerves. But Trusko was at least as excited as he was frightened.

‘We’ve done it,’ he said, the words coming out hoarse between breaths. ‘After all the failures, all the busts. This changes everything.’

Strambli couldn’t mask her own enthusiasm, but it was tempered by realism. ‘We’ll take what we can. Leave the boxes, if necessary, and just take what’s in ’em. But even then, we’ll never shift more than a fraction of what’s here. And it’s no good saying we’ll come back another time. The rumour’s already out there. Some other coves’ll be here before we can blink, clean the place out . . .’

‘We can seal the doors,’ Trusko said. ‘Make as many trips up and down the shaft as we can, then seal everything up. Make it harder for them, at any rate.’ He was still bewitched. ‘Just a few trinkets of Ghostie stuff changed the fortunes of whole crews. What’s here’s enough to change a whole world, a whole economy.’

‘Better hope the market doesn’t get flooded,’ Prozor said drily.

‘We’ll get back to the worlds. Get a good price for the loot, before the price dips. We’re still ahead of the game.’ He pivoted around, throwing his arms wide. ‘Fura – I had my doubts about that intelligence you threw me, but I thought it worth taking a chance on. Rest assured you’ve earned your share of this. And, Prozor – your auguries told us this was feasible. If ever I had my doubts about either of you . . .’

‘Perhaps,’ I said, ‘we ought to start moving it up the shaft.’

Trusko raised his hand in good-natured surrender. ‘Of course, of course.’

We were down to fifteen hours and spare change. Fourteen before we needed to be in the launch and on our way. I couldn’t see us making more than one round trip up and down the shaft in less than five hours, which meant we had time – just – to make three trips to the surface, three loads of Ghostie stuff in the bucket.