‘We should call for backup,’ DeShelle offered, unholstering her laspistol. It felt cool and reassuringly solid in her hand, and she was relieved to realise that her palm wasn’t sweaty. Once upon a time, she’d have been alarmed by the prospect of even holding a gun. Those days were long, long behind her though, and it didn’t seem as if her time spent as Lady Chettamandey’s aide had blunted her readiness.

‘It could be a malfunction, or a distraction,’ Krane argued. ‘We don’t have the bodies to go jumping at shadows this evening.’

‘These shadows jumped at us,’ DeShelle pointed out, but she didn’t push it. ‘Very well. You first.’

Krane advanced down the rest of the staircase, bolt pistol in his left hand and The Wolf in his right. DeShelle followed, laspistol held low in both hands, scanning behind them. If this was a hostile move, it wouldn’t be out of the question for an attacker to get them peering into the dark and then jump them from behind, out of the light.

‘You know what I said about how tight the security is here?’ she asked. A nasty thought had just occurred to her, and was even less comfortable for the fact that it had come when she was feeling her way cautiously backwards down the staircase with her left foot. ‘And how that meant that even someone who could walk through walls wouldn’t try their luck?’

‘Yeah?’

‘Well, it’s not so tight tonight. And anyone who’s been passing them information would know that.’

DeShelle heard a slow intake of breath behind her, then a noisy exhalation followed by the barely audible click of a comm-bead activating.

‘This is Krane. Activate lockdown – I want eyes on every Navigator until further notice, and I mean eyes. Watch for trickery, and don’t assume a room is clear just because it looks like it.’

‘Thank you,’ DeShelle said after a moment of silence had passed.

‘You’ve got a good brain, DuVoir,’ Krane replied. ‘Her ladyship takes your counsel, I’d be a fool not to do the same.’

DeShelle had reached the last step now, and she was somewhat relieved to find level floor behind her. Tumbling backwards down a few steps might not have been a disaster in and of itself, but it could have critically disrupted Krane’s concentration had she collided with him. Or, if he was feeling particularly tightly wound, caused him to strike at her with The Wolf before registering that she wasn’t an assailant.