‘Or suggests that Bosk, or Sark, or whatever he wanted to call himself, felt secure,’ replied Eisenhorn. ‘That he was confident he could not be found, even if someone was looking.’

‘If he lived here,’ said Drusher, ‘then he was happy to be known to his neighbours – neighbours like Esic Fargul – by his real name.’

‘Which reinforces my point,’ said Eisenhorn. ‘His neighbours knew his real name. He entertained and was not a recluse. He had influence and an influential circle of friends. The name of his property was known. Keshtre. Yet neither it nor he can be located. His disguise was casual, Medea, because he was clearly able to hide very well.’

‘You should look at his list of known associates, sir,’ said Voriet, sliding the data-slate towards his senior. ‘An influential circle of friends indeed – artists, Administratum officials, men of science, senior military officers, at least one ex-governor of Gershom…’

‘You see my urge for confidence now, marshal?’ Eisenhorn asked Macks.

‘That name in the third column, there, sir,’ said Voriet, pointing to the slate. ‘That was the one that caught my eye.’

‘Goran Gobleka,’ said Eisenhorn.

‘Who’s that?’ asked Drusher.

‘A recidivist,’ said Eisenhorn. ‘A man pursued for years by the Ordo Hereticus. A suspected member of the Cognitae. And the man that Thea Inshabel was looking for when she came here.’

‘What is the Cognitae?’ asked Macks.

‘Some things must remain classified,’ said Eisenhorn. ‘The point is, we have a connection. A link between the elements. Sark resided in the Karanines. Thea’s remains, and the others’, were discovered in the area. Sark knew the man Thea was hunting. He may have offered sanctuary to his friend Gobleka, especially if his home was somehow impossible to detect.’

‘Perhaps not so impossible,’ said Drusher.

Eisenhorn stared at him. Jaff and Voriet looked taken aback.

‘My turn,’ said Drusher. ‘When I encountered Esic Fargul in the woods yesterday, however I encountered him, he said that Keshtre was a fortress near here, but down towards the pass.’

‘So you said,’ said Voriet.

‘We presumed he meant the Karad Pass, north of here, so that’s the area we’ve been looking at,’ said Drusher.

‘And there’s nothing here,’ said Macks.

Drusher opened the old man’s annotated text.

‘Fargul was a keen observer,’ he said. ‘See, how he made notes? The little things he noticed? He also knew a good deal about local history. His family had lived here for a long time. In these margin comments, he uses the phrase “the pass” several times. I didn’t notice it at first, because I assumed he meant Karad. But here, if you look, he refers to flocks massing at the pass before moving up into the hills.’

‘So?’ asked Jaff.

‘If they were massing at the pass,’ said Drusher, ‘they would already be in the hills. Karad is north of us, deep in the range. He meant somewhere else. To Esic Fargul, “the pass” was something else.’