Trusko gave a gallows laugh. ‘You mean we haven’t already had it?’

‘We’re going to have get into that armour. Five suits is all we’ve got, but five’s all we need. Prozor tells me the armour will fit around us and make us hard to see. The catch is our suits are too bulky. We can’t wear ’em, and that means we can’t do without ship lungstuff.’

‘Could we put the armour on inside the suits?’ Strambli asked.

‘Not if your suit’s already as tight as mine is,’ I said. ‘Anyway, that would rob us of half the benefit from the armour, which is being slippery on the eyes.’

‘Captain,’ said Prozor. ‘Can you keep us on a steady headin’ for a few minutes, while we try on our new toys?’

‘Yes, yes,’ Trusko stammered. ‘We’re lined up for the time being. But I must keep in contact with Drozna. I’d do so normally.’

‘Fine,’ I said. ‘But a word out of place, and Bosa’ll give you cause to regret it. Strambli: lay out the armour and figure out which bit goes where. Prozor and I’ll start getting out of our suits. Watch your hands on those sharp things.’

We’d stowed the armour and guns inside the launch, in the compartments ahead of the aft bulkhead. The launch was still on a whisper of thrust, so it wasn’t properly weightless, and that helped with getting everything organised. Prozor and I got on with the sweaty, grunty business of shedding the rest of our suits, helping each other out, but not making too much in the way of pleasant conversation while we were about it. I wasn’t surprised. We’d both kept stuff from each other, Prozor with the auguries and me with the Nightjammer, but if I was blunt with myself, mine was the slyer of our deceptions.

I’d been honest in my explanation, too. I wasn’t prepared to drag things out with Bosa. But I think it was going to take a bit more than a word or two to square things with Prozor. I wanted her back on my side, though. I’d come to like thinking of her as a friend, and I didn’t much care for the idea that she felt I’d betrayed her.

Even if that’s what I’d done.

‘I don’t understand why it had to be us,’ Strambli was saying, while she laid out the armour, mostly by feel rather than sight.

‘I might ask the same question,’ Trusko called back.