Malden shook his head as if listening to the plans of a child. ‘Then, the moment you started taking over, all Smith would have needed to do was switch on the EM field, cutting you out of the circuit, then hunt you down.’

‘I’m sure I would have found a way round that,’ Saul replied huffily.

Despite Saul’s obvious capabilities, Malden gave a superior smile now. Hannah realized he was thinking like a revolutionary, locked in that groove where it seemed the only solution to anything must involve guns. Perhaps some part of him assumed that taking over a space station must require drama. Obviously Saul wasn’t averse to guns himself, but Hannah realized that, by having an optic plug installed in his head, he’d negated the need for troops. His huffy response to Malden was just a pose, and he was way ahead of the man.

‘I can either leave you aboard this plane,’ Malden said, ‘in which case it’s certain station security will come looking for you – or you can come in with us.’

‘That a good idea?’ asked Scarface.

Malden glanced at him. ‘He knows the situation.’ He turned back to Saul, weighing him up. ‘You do understand the situation?’

‘If you leave me aboard the plane, Smith gets me and I’m dead. And even if I try to betray you to Smith, I’m still not going to be his best buddy. I’ll still end up chewing a bullet.’

‘Our objectives are essentially the same, too,’ Malden said. ‘And by working together now – and in the future – we can be a lot more effective.’

‘Agreed.’

As Malden returned his attention to Hannah, she felt the locks on her straps disengage.

‘You will be accompanying us, too,’ he told her. ‘I’m going to be needing you later.’

He wanted to live. Did he also visualize building an army of cyborgs like himself and Saul to rout the remains of the totalitarian state down below, after the asteroid had done its work? Until he replaced that state with one of his own, nearly indistinguishable?

The countdown on the screen slowly clicked its way down towards zero. At two minutes, the space plane shuddered, and shortly afterwards a great hollow roar grew in volume and Hannah knew it must now be opening its scramjet intakes. Next came a mutter, like some steel giant grumping to itself, then a crash followed by massive acceleration. That same steel giant next came and put his foot on her chest, then pressed his weight on that foot. Her vision seemed to tunnel, and she could only just see the frame newly opened on the screen, showing the rear view of a great ribbed flame like a scorpion’s tail whipping out behind; below it the maps of Earth were rapidly shrinking.

‘They’ll know you’re coming,’ Saul said tightly, his voice hoarse.