‘It would help you convince me,’ said Drusher quietly, ‘if you smelled the way I remembered you. It would make me feel like you still cared. Make me believe it was more than an official visit.’

Macks sighed.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said.

‘Don’t be. It was clever. You were just doing your job. Subliminal persuasion.’

‘No,’ she said, ‘I’m sorry I put it on. I mean, that’s why I put it on. To put you at ease. To remind you of a time when we were close. But I’m sorry I did it.’

‘Why?’ he asked.

She looked at him through the bars.

‘Because it reminded me of a time when we were close too,’ she said.

Drusher reached his hand in through the bars, and she took it.

‘It’s going to be all right, Germaine,’ he said. ‘You and me, side by side, insane adventures.’

‘Which you always hated.’

‘I think of them fondly in hindsight,’ he said. ‘They were high jinks compared to this.’

‘It isn’t working,’ she said.

‘The reassurance?’

‘The wax charm,’ she replied. She let go of his hand and shook at the cage door again.

‘Just be patient,’ he said.

‘There’s no time for patience, magos,’ said Voriet sharply.

Drusher looked around. The woman with the cropped, red hair was coming down the steps onto the platform. She stared at him, smiled and drew her sidearm.

Eighteen

EIGHTEEN

Dead or Alive

Drusher ripped the pistol from his pocket and aimed it at her.

‘Don’t,’ he said. ‘Not another step.’

The woman’s smile broadened.

‘That’s the bitch who hurt me,’ said Voriet.

‘Her name is Streekal,’ said Drusher. ‘Streekal, right?’

‘Yes,’ the woman said.

‘Here’s what’s going to happen, Mamzel Streekal,’ said Drusher. He kept the gun aimed and tried not to let on how badly he was shaking. ‘Stop where you are, and toss your weapon now.’

‘Or what?’ she asked.

‘Or I shoot you between the eyes,’ he said. ‘I am a very good shot. Marshal Macks gave me this gun many years ago. She showed me how to use it. I have practised with it every day. I can knock a moving Gortus gortus gershomi out of the sky at one hundred metres.’

‘A what?’ asked Streekal sarcastically.

‘A sea raptor,’ growled Voriet from his cage.

‘See? You do learn,’ Drusher said sidelong. He glared at Streekal.

‘Toss the weapon now,’ he said.

‘Be careful,’ warned Voriet. ‘She is very, very fast. Don’t let her get close.’

Drusher thumbed back the hammer.

‘Lose the gun now, mamzel,’ he said.

Streekal stopped in her tracks. Her eyes narrowed, and her smile dissolved. She raised her sidearm, a compact laspistol, keeping her fingers open to show she had no real grip on it, then threw it aside. It hit the workstation and bounced onto the floor.

‘You won’t get out of here alive,’ she said.