"You’re right about me, you know," said Bellis. They whispered, to keep the woman in the other room from waking. Bellis’ voice sounded dead. "You are right," she repeated. "Armada is not my place. I can see you. You think, ‘I wouldn’t trust that uptown bitch.’ "

Tanner shook his head, trying to disagree, but she would not let him.

"You’re right. I’m not trustworthy. I want to go home, Tanner Sack. And if I could open a door and walk through and be in Brock Marsh, or Salacus Fields, or Mafaton or Ludmead or anywhere in New Crobuzon, then by Jabber I would walk through it."

Tanner almost winced at her intensity.

"But I can’t," she went on. "And yes, there was a time when I imagined rescue. I imagined the navy sailing in to whisk me home. But there are two things in the way of that.

"I want to go home, Sack. But…" She hesitated and slumped a little. "But there were others on the Terpsichoria without that urge. And I know what it would mean… for you, and for the others… for all the Crobuzoner Remade… to be… ‘rescued.’ " She turned her eyes to him in an unflinching stare. "And you can believe me or not, as you like, but that’s not something I want. I have no illusions about New Crobuzon, about the transportation. You know nothing about my circumstances, Tanner Sack. You don’t know anything about what forced me onto that fucking loathsome ship.

"No matter how I want to return home," she said, "I know that what’s best for me isn’t so for you, and I’d not willingly be party to that. And that’s true," she said suddenly, as if in surprise, as if to herself. "I lost that argument. I concede. That is true."

She hesitated, then looked up at him.

"And even if you think I’m full of nothing but lies, Mr. Sack, there’s always the second factor: There is nothing I can do. I can’t stow away with the Samheri; I can’t give directions to the New Crobuzon navy. I’m stuck with Armada. I’m damn well stuck with it."

"So who’s Silas Fennec?" he said. "And what is this?" He waved the letter.

"Fennec is a Crobuzoner agent, no less marooned than me. Only with information," she said coldly. "Information about a fucking invasion."

"You want it to fall?" she demanded. "Godspit, I understand you’ve no love for the place. Why in Jabber’s name should you have? But do you really want New Crobuzon to fall?" Her voice was suddenly very hard. "Have you no friends left there? No family? There’s nothing left in the whole fucking city you’d preserve? You wouldn’t mind it falling to The Gengris?"