“Heard of him.” There wasn’t much point in going for the deep lie. Not with the way Oishii was watching my face. I sipped at my drink again. “Did he say what he wanted?”

“Nah,” Simi shook his head, clearly not that interested. “He was just asking where you were, if you’d gone out with the Slipins. Was a couple of days back, so I told him, yeah, you were all out in the Uncleared. He—”

“Did he—” I stopped myself. ”Sorry, you were saying?”

“He seemed pretty concerned to talk to you. Persuaded someone, think it was Anton and the Skull Gang, to take him out into the Uncleared for a look. So you know this guy, right? He a problem for you?”

“Of course,” said Oishii quietly. “Might not be the same Kovacs you know. It’s a common enough name.”

“There’s that,” I admitted.

“But you don’t think so?”

I manufactured a shrug. “Seems unlikely. He’s looking for me, I’ve heard of him. Most probable thing is, we’ve got some shared history.”

Oishii’s crew colleague and Simi both nodded dismissive, boozed-up assent. Oishii himself seemed more closely intrigued.

“And what have you heard about him, this Kovacs?”

This time the shrug was easier. “Nothing good.”

“Yeah,” Simi agreed sweepingly. “That’s right. Seemed like a real hardassed psycho motherfucker to me.”

“Did he come alone?” I asked.

“Nah, whole squad of enforcer types with him. ”Bout four, five of them. Millsport accents.”

Oh good. So this wasn’t a local matter any more. Tanaseda was living up to his promise. A global writ for your capture. And from somewhere they’d dug up—

You don’t know that. Not yet.

Oh, come on. It has to be. Why use the name? Whose sense of humour does that sound like to you?

Unless—

“Simi, listen. He didn’t ask for me by name, did he?”

Simi blinked at me. “Dunno, what is your name?”

“Okay. Never mind.”

“Guy was asking after Sylvie,” explained Oishii. “Her name, he knew. Knew the Slipins, seems like. But he really seemed interested in some new recruit Sylvie might have had in her team. And that name, he didn’t know. Right, Simi?”

“ ‘S about it, yeah.” Simi peered into his empty glass. I signalled the barman and got refills all round.

“So. These Millsport types. Any of them still around, you reckon?”

Simi pursed his lips. “Could be. Don’t know, I didn’t see the Skull Gang go out, don’t know how much extra weight they were carrying.”

“But it’d make sense,” said Oishii softly. “If this Kovacs did his research, he’ll know how hard it is to track movement in the Uncleared. It’d make sense to leave a couple of guys behind in case you came back.” He paused, watching my face. “And to needlecast the news if you did.”