Strambli had taken off her helmet now that we were inside the launch. Her madder, larger eye was on me, doubt swimming behind it.

‘What?’

‘You’re in trouble. We’re in trouble. All of us.’ I had to take a breath, forcing myself into something close to calm if not quite calm itself. ‘You’ve been tricked,’ I went on. ‘By me. I’m not what you thought I was, and neither’s Proz. But we’re not your enemy. The enemy is the return Drozna just got on the sweeper.’

‘What,’ Trusko said slowly, ‘would that return be?’

‘It’s Bosa Sennen’s ship. What she calls the Dame Scarlet and what the rest of us call the Nightjammer.’

‘No,’ the captain said, with a flat certainty. ‘I’ve never crossed orbits with her. Never given her a reason to take an interest in me or my operation. I’m not even sure she exists.’

‘You soon will be,’ I said, reaching up to unlatch my helmet. ‘We’re not going back into the bauble. The auguries weren’t what you thought anyway. Less than seven hours from now, the field starts firming up again. Mainly, though, you need to get us back to the Queenie before Bosa closes in for her attack.’

‘Attack,’ Trusko repeated.

It was like he was hearing me, but the words weren’t quite drilling into his noggin.

‘She wants your skull,’ I said. Then, smiling like he might have taken that the wrong way, I added: ‘The one in the bone room. Hers is duff. She blew it taking the Monetta.’

‘Monetta,’ Strambli said. ‘There’s that name again.’

‘Prozor and I crewed on it,’ I said, lifting off my helmet. ‘We were shipmates, and we survived Bosa Sennen.’ Then, to Trusko: ‘I wasn’t kidding, Captain. We really do need to be on our way. I can explain how the rest of it’s going to work out as we cross over.’

Prozor turned to him. ‘Fura and I’ve got a few little points of order to settle between us. But she’s right about one thing. We do need to be up and off the bauble. You noticed how blurry those stars were starting to look, before we got back on the launch?’

‘I thought it was my helmet,’ Trusko said. ‘Getting all smeared over.’

‘It wasn’t. It’s space is what’s starting to smear over. Just a bit, not enough to stop us leaving. But the one thing we don’t want to do is sit around here bumpin’ our gums.’

‘Are you . . . serious?’ he asked, his gaze switching between the two of us.

‘Never been more serious, Captain,’ I told him. ‘But everything’s all right. I didn’t set you up to be torn apart by Bosa. She’s the one who’s in for a surprise.’

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