There was something pathetic about Johannes that night, and she had never thought so before.

"How do you know all this, Johannes?" said Bellis carefully, at last. "Where’ve you been? What are you actually doing?"

Johannes cleared his throat and stared into his glass for a long time.

"Bellis…" he said. Around him, the soft clatter of the restaurant seemed very loud. "Bellis… can I tell you in confidence?" Johannes sighed, then looked up at her.

"I’m working for the Lovers," he said. "And I don’t mean I work in Garwater riding. I work directly for them. They have a team of researchers, working on a quite…" He shook his head and began to smile with delight. "A quite extraordinary project. An extraordinary opportunity. And they invited me to join them-because of my previous work.

"Their team had read some of my research, and they decided that I’d be… that they wanted me to work with them." He was overjoyed, she realized. He was like a child, almost exactly like a child.

"There are thaumaturges, oceanologers, marine biologists. That man-the man who defeated the Terpsichoria, Uther Doul-he’s part of the team. He’s central, in fact. He’s a philosopher. There are different projects all being pursued. Projects on cryptogeography and probability theory, as well as… as the investigation I’m working on. The man in charge of that is fascinating. He was with the Lovers when we arrived: a tall old man with a beard."

"I remember him," said Bellis. "He welcomed you."

A look somewhere between contrition and excitement overtook Johannes.

"He did," he said. "That’s Tintinnabulum. A hunter, an outsider, employed by the city. He lives on the Castor with seven other men, where Garwater meets Shaddler and Booktown. A small ship with a belfry…

"We’re doing such fascinating work," he said suddenly, and seeing his pure pleasure Bellis could see how Armada had won him. "The equipment’s old and unreliable-the analytical engines are ancient-but the work’s so much more radical. I’ve months of research to catch up on-I’m learning Salt. This work… it means reading the most varied things."

He grinned at her with incredulous pride. "For my project, there are certain key texts. One of them’s mine. Can you believe that? Isn’t that extraordinary? They’re from all over the world. From New Crobuzon, Khadoh. And there are mystery books that we can’t find. They’re in Ragamoll and Salt and moonscript… One of the most important’s said to be in High Kettai. We’ve made a list of them from references in the books we do have. Gods know how they’ve got such a fantastic library here, Bellis. Half these books I could never find at home-"

"They stole it, Johannes," she said, and silenced him. "That’s how they’ve got it. Every damned volume in Grand Gears Library is stolen. From ships, from the towns they plunder on the coast. From people like me, Johannes. My books that I wrote that have been stolen from me. That’s where they get their books."