‘I most certainly am,’ Chetta said. She rubbed her right shoulder with her left hand. The damned thing still ached from when she’d struck the assassin with her cane. ‘I may not be especially keen on either of them, but they’re no fools, and they’re as fond of this planet as I am. Jo’Sin’s resources could be critical in finding Niklau.’

She didn’t have long to wait. It was a matter of minutes before the heavy main doors of the security chamber opened once more, admitting Morandia and Jalamar amidst a knot of Brobantis security personnel.

‘Chettamandey!’ Morandia called, storming across the room. Chetta should never have let them in here, by rights, not into the nerve centre of Brobantis security, but she’d meant what she’d said about not having the guards available to safely meet them anywhere else. Chetta liked her warp eye exactly where it was. ‘Where is my brother?’

‘If you’d like to come in here?’ Chetta asked, smiling sweetly. She turned and jerked her head at Tekoa and his assistants. ‘Out. Now.’

The surveillance personnel filed out hurriedly, and Chetta ushered DeShelle, Ngiri and Davis in, then held the door for Morandia and Jalamar before shutting it behind her. Jalamar was eyeing the two towering, armoured warriors uneasily, but Morandia was concentrating only on Chetta.

‘Well?’

‘Vittar is dead,’ Chetta said bluntly. She felt a momentary twinge of guilt as the other woman’s face crumpled, but only a momentary one. ‘There was an assassination attempt when we were with the governor.’

‘And how convenient that Vittar died, and you yet live!’ Morandia hissed venomously, the lumens above flashing off her glare-shades as she tilted her head.

‘Lady Brobantis would have died also, were it not for my intervention,’ Ngiri put in. Chetta started to object – she’d handled that one with the claws quite readily, she thought – but clamped down on the words. Ngiri was only trying to help, after all.

‘You?’ Morandia scoffed, rounding on her. ‘The rogue pauper attached to the beggar Xudines? Of course my brother’s death would aid your patron, since it would leave this fool in a position of power!’ She pointed at Chetta, who fought very hard to control her urge to swat Morandia’s arm away with her cane, and possibly have her finger slip over the activation stud at the same time. She managed to keep control of herself, however,

‘So I am both a snivelling incompetent and a manipulative schemer?’ she demanded. ‘Morandia, you need to choose one or the other for me. And lest we forget, now my husband and my brother-in-law are both dead, you are the sole surviving scion of the ruling branch of House Brobantis! Don’t pretend that you do not stand to benefit from this state of affairs!’