Kiva motioned to them. “Tell the rest of them to fuck off, too,” she said to Limbar.

“Everyone fuck off,” Limbar said. “For the next fifteen minutes.”

Everyone fucked off, and Limbar closed the door behind them.

“So how the fuck did one of our shuttles get jacked for this?” Kiva asked, walking over to Pretar’s office chair and falling into it.

“It’s funny you should ask me that, Lady Kiva,” Limbar said. “I was going to ask the very same question of you. Possibly with fewer ‘fucks’ involved.”

“Obviously I have no idea.”

“You were the owner’s representative on the Yes, Sir.”

“Yes.”

“And on the way back to Hub from End you stuffed your ship full of emigrants from End, allegedly fleeing the civil war there.”

“Yes. So?”

“So it’s possible one or more of those emigrants had plans once they got here.”

Kiva snorted. “You’re suggesting one of those assholes we shipped to Hub knew the emperox—a brand-new emperox, who was being crowned just about the time we left—was going to be on a particular ship at a particular time and then just borrowed a shuttle to take her out.”

“I don’t think that’s likely. I think it’s rather more likely someone here gave them instructions once they arrived, and scoped out the political landscape.”

“What does that mean?” Kiva asked.

“Lady Kiva, are you aware of the ship that was attacked?”

“No.”

“It was the If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out, which was a new tenner commissioned by the House of Nohamapetan.”

Kiva said nothing.

“Lady Nohamapetan tells me that not too long before her house’s ship was attacked, you and your mother the countess threatened Amit Nohamapetan over a business dispute.”

“We didn’t threaten him. We just made very clear our displeasure over certain actions his house undertook against us on End, but offered to settle those issues out of court. You can ask him yourself.”

“I would love to do that, except that he was with the emperox when the attack happened. The emperox survived. Amit Nohamapetan, alas, did not.”

“Well, fuck,” Kiva said, after a minute.

Limbar nodded. “I can show you the pictures if you like. There’s not much left, however. Most of what wasn’t smeared onto the ship deck was ejected out into space.”

“You don’t think we did that, do you?”