‘Stop!’ Prozor snarled, bringing the smoky mirage of that blade even closer to his neck.

‘The squawk’s damaged,’ Drozna said behind us, his frame nearly filling the doorway. ‘The scatterfire. Coil-guns took out everything on that side of the Queenie, including our eyes. We haven’t been able to send or receive since it happened. I’m sorry, Captain. All the channels are burned out.’

Prozor reached over with her free hand and threw a master switch, damping all the lights on the console. ‘You nearly killed us all,’ she said, saying it just loud enough for the rest of us to hear. ‘Thought you’d spook her off, by mentionin’ the Ghostie stuff, did you? First thing, Bosa doesn’t spook. She probably wouldn’t have believed you, but even if she had, she’d have just turned those coil-guns on you, properly this time, not that little slap and tickle she showed you just now. Have you seen a coil-gun slug go right through a hull, Trusko? I have. Have you ever seen a coil-gun slug go right through a hull, and right through the cove that happened to be in the way? Seen that as well. There isn’t much left. Just a pink cloud, which gets everywhere. They say it’s quick, at least. Was that what you wanted? A quick end to it all?’

‘You said “first thing”, ’ Trusko answered, in a voice that belonged on a boy better than it did on a captain. ‘What’s the second?’

‘The second is that you tried to trick us, and you’ve got to die for that, but I felt I owed you an explanation.’

Prozor brought the knife against his neck.

‘No,’ I said. ‘Leave him.’

Trusko’s neck moved. I bet there was nothing in the universe he wanted to move less than his own neck, but we aren’t always the master of our own bodies, especially when someone’s pressing a Ghostie knife against us.

‘Why?’ Prozor asked.

‘Because you want Bosa to think she’s got the better of us. Having him already dead, cut open with a Ghostie blade, floating around with his blood coming out everywhere? Don’t you think that’d make her think twice?’

‘You’re the expert on Bosa now?’

‘No,’ I said calmly, even though calm was the last thing I felt. ‘I’m not. None of us are. But if she waltzes in here and finds Trusko already peeled by his own crew, she’s going to think something’s fishy.’

‘We’ll take her anyway.’

‘No,’ I said, willing that knife away from Trusko’s skin. ‘Not until we’ve got the lot of ’em inside the Queenie. We can’t risk her cutting back to the Nightjammer and turning those coil-guns on us.’