Garofar followed Audla Jaff into the yard.

The hatches popped on the cargo 4, and five people got out. Garofar’s boss, Macks, and three of the investigator’s team: the suave Voriet, the big thug Nayl and Mamzel Betancore, whose beauty stopped Garofar in his tracks every time he saw her.

It looked like someone had taken a swing at Voriet. There was a dressing strapped around his face. That pleased Garofar no end. Voriet was an arrogant bastard. He was of a type Garofar knew too well: privately schooled cadet officers in the Territorial Guard, petulant aristos, privileged rich kids from the cities, who rolled into Unkara every summer season to hunt and drink and sail the lakes, and generally harass any female they could find. They had rich fathers who retained expensive lawyers who, in turn, could disappear any indiscretions.

The fifth man looked like a vagrant. He was old and pale, and thin to the point of being haggard. His hair was grey, and he wore a shabby chequered suit and an overcoat that had outlived several previous owners. Little wire-frame spectacles perched on his face. The frames were bent, and they gave him a cock-eyed appearance. This was the expert they’d gone off to locate?

‘Morning, chief,’ Garofar called to Macks.

She nodded back. She was handing down a kitbag that was apparently the extent of the expert’s luggage. The expert was standing nearby, adjusting his spectacles and looking around as if he’d never seen daylight or old high walls before.

‘Garofar, this is Magos Biologis Drusher,’ Macks said.

‘Sir,’ Garofar nodded curtly.

‘Find him a room and give him a hand with his bag. We’ll brief in twenty minutes.’

‘Yes, mam,’ said Garofar. He picked up the kitbag. ‘Fifth floor is free,’ he said.

Macks shook her head.

‘Stick him on the fourth, near to me. If you put him on the fifth, someone will tell a ghost story about the old man dying up there and we’ll never hear the bloody end of it.’

The expert, Drusher, scowled at her.

‘I’m not a child, Macks,’ he said. ‘I don’t believe in ghosts. An old building where someone once died? So what?’

‘I know what you can get like, Valentin,’ she replied.

‘I presume the bedding has been changed since this old man died in it?’ he asked.

She nodded.

‘Stick him on the fifth, then, deputy,’ she said.

‘You were gone a long time,’ Jaff said to Voriet.

‘Delayed,’ Voriet replied. ‘The transporter broke down outside Ottofan. Transaxle. We had to rent another ride.’

Jaff looked at Garofar and flashed her eyebrows again. Scary bitch. How could she tell that just from a distant noise?

‘Brief in twenty,’ Macks repeated. ‘Is he here?’

‘No,’ said Jaff.

‘You could have briefed me on the road,’ said Drusher. ‘It was a long enough journey.’

‘Some things you need to see for yourself before they make sense,’ said Nayl.