“Free?” Vick stared at him. “Is that what we are now?”

“Within reason. People love the idea of freedom but, in my experience, there is only so much they can be trusted with. You saw what Judge did with it. Take it far enough, freedom becomes chaos. The voice of the people… is just noise. It is the blather of the lunatics in the madhouse. It is the squeal of the pigs in the slaughterhouse. It is a choir of morons. Most of them don’t even know what they want, let alone how to get it. They need someone to tell them what to do.”

“Someone like you, I suppose?”

“Or you.” He waved towards the bench on the other side of the table. “Have a seat, Inquisitor. Towering over me like that, you’re making me nervous.”

She dropped down opposite him, numb. “If the Breakers were your tool, why send me to watch them?”

“I needed to know what they were about. You may have noticed that people have a habit of doing stupid, unpredictable things. And I could hardly show up to meetings.” He gently turned the squares board around, considering the position from the other side. “The Breakers would have been most upset, I imagine, to find they were taking orders from the man they considered their worst enemy.”

“Taking orders? A moment ago you were merely pointing them in the right direction.”

Lamplight glistened on his empty gums as he grinned. “You always were a sharp interrogator. Sometimes I had to give a little more than guidance, I confess. Otherwise they might all have run off their own way, like woodlice from a lifted log.”

“Is that what happened in Valbeck?”

“People are not machines that one can move with a lever. This business is more art than science.” Glokta licked unhappily at one of the teeth he still had. “I had planned a dress rehearsal, you might say, but Risinau shit the bed on the timing, just as he shit the bed on everything. I am an inveterate bed-shitter myself, so I recognise the tendency in others. Sadly, as an old colleague of mine was fond of saying, we must work with the tools we have.”

“What about Tallow? Is that even his name?”

“Do you know, I forget his original name. I’d be surprised if even he remembers it.” Glokta let his forefinger rest on top of one of the smallest pieces, as though considering a move. “I needed to know what you were about. You may have noticed that people have a habit of doing stupid, unpredictable things. I placed him with the Breakers so you could take him under your wing and he could make sure you stuck to the script. Which you did, admirably.”

“He was your plant from the beginning?” she whispered.

“Don’t be upset at him, Vick, it’s beneath you. I found him in the camps, like you. I offered him the same deal and he made the same choice. The only choice. To stand with the winners.”