Halran waited until the tiny bots had whirled round the corpse of Viertz Accu before he gave her a more detailed inspection. Her cocooned body was still in a kneeling position, spine curved forward as if she was at prayer. They'd found the top of her skull upstairs while they were waiting for the gossamer to run its decontamination procedure. Halran knew what that implied — this was turning into a bad case from every angle.

His exovision overlaid the results of the examiners, showing him the narrow burn lines on her exposed brain. A lot of energy had been applied in a fashion he recognized. He applied a deep scan module, tracking the depth of the beam penetration. Her memorycell had been destroyed.

'I hope she backed up recently, he muttered.

'What do you make of these, Chief? Angelo asked. He was standing in front of an exotic matter cage.

'Nice idea, I suppose. I haven't seen one before. Telfer obviously didn't know they were here.

'Much good it did the clinic. Those guards didn't exactly slow him down, did they?

'No. His enrichments were off the scale. Halran called up the main case file again. Telfer appeared in his exoimage, a picture taken in the main reception area, showing a possible oriental ethnicity, but with odd grey eyes. Age locked into his thirties, which was unusual, and with a dense stubble shadow. Completely unexceptional. Which Halran knew to be deliberate. Not that visual features meant anything in this day and age; even DNA identification was inconclusive now — and they had enough of that from the blood trail back up to the roof. The picture showed him smiling as he greeted the beautiful young clinician. His accomplice, though, was a different matter, she certainly didn't qualify as unexceptional; a real beauty with a freckled face and thick dark-red hair. Cute nose, too, he thought admiringly. People would remember that face.

Everything about their arrival was perfectly normal, right up to the moment the clinic security net started glitching and Telfer vanished from the smartcore's passive surveillance. The raid, too, was extremely professional. Apart from the exit. The woman had seemed almost surprised, as if she was improvising the whole thing. Which didn't make a lot of sense.

'Chief, Darval called.

'Yep.

'The registry was hacked.

Halran started to walk over to where Darval was stooped over the registry pillar. Several examiners were crawling over its gossamer cloak, prodding the top with their antenna. 'Has there been physical— he began to say. The sentence was never finished. A woman walked into the vault. Halran gave her a surprised look, about to ask who the hell she was — suspecting another of the Mayor's staffers — because nobody else could get through the police cordon without his permission. Then her face registered and Halran didn't need to ask, he knew all about this living legend; everyone in law enforcement did. 'Oh sweet Ozzie, he murmured — and an already bad case turned nightmare on him. She was shorter than most of citizens of today's Commonwealth, but the confidence she exuded was so much greater than average. Harlan had encountered enough Highers in his time to recognize their slightly smug self-belief; she was on a level far above them, with a composure that rated glacial. Her face was enchanting, a combination of pre-Commonwealth Earth's Filipino and European features framed by thick raven hair brushed straight and devoid of any modern cosmetics, a beauty he could only describe as old-fashioned. Which was fair enough given she hadn't changed her appearance once in the last fourteen hundred years.

The whole forensic team had fallen into awed silence, staring at the woman.

Halran stepped forward, hoping he was concealing his nerves. She wore a conservative cream-coloured toga suit over a figure that was as ideal as any created by St Mary's specialists. When he attempted to scan her using the most subtle probes his enrichments could produce they were deflected perfectly. It was as if nothing was there; the only empirical proof he had that she existed was his own eyesight.

'Ma'am, I'm Investigator Halran, in charge of this case. I, er, that is we, are very flattered you're here.

'Thank you, said Paula Myo.

'Can I ask what your interest is?

'It's not my interest; I am only ANA: Governance's representative.

'In this universe, Darval whispered to Angelo.

Paula gave him a sweet smile. 'The old jokes are always the best ones. And they don't come much older.

Darvel's expression turned sickly.

'Okay, Halran said. 'So what's ANA: Governance's interest?

'Mr Telfer.

'Is he Higher?

'What do you think?

'His weapons biononics are the most sophisticated we've ever seen on Anagaska. The vault guards were hired purely on the basis of their enrichments, and he took them both out in less than a minute. So if he's not Higher, he has access to the best the Central Worlds have to offer.

'Very good, Paula complimented. 'So?

'He's probably working for one of your Factions.

'Excellent rationale, Investigator. That's exactly why I'm here, to see if that particular conclusion is correct. Now I'd like first access to all your forensic results, please.

'Er, I'll see you get copies, of course.

'Your planetary government has granted ANA: Governance full cooperation on this case. I'm sure you appreciate the politics involved. Please feel free to check with your Commissioner, and even the city's Mayor; but that's not copies. I require first, and unrestricted, access to the raw data, thank you.

Halran knew when he'd lost a battle. 'Yes, ma'am. First access. I'll set that up right away.

'Thank you. Now who's analysing the registry?

'That's me, Darval said awkwardly.

'Who do you think Telfer was after?

Darval glanced at Halran, who gave a tiny nod. 'Easy, actually. One of the secure stores belonged to Inigo.

'Ah, Paula smiled. She closed her eyes and drew a long breath through her nose. 'When was the last update?

'3320.

'The year he left on his Centurion Station mission, she said. 'And he didn't return to Anagaska until 3415, correct?

'Yes, Halran said. 'Living Dream's central fane on Anagaska was built in Kuhmo; he was here to dedicate it.

'Interesting, Paula mused.

'You think someone's going to full-clone him?

'Why else would you steal his mind? Paula said. 'Thank you for your cooperation, Investigator. And I'd still like those results as they come in. She turned and started to walk out of the vault.

'That's it? Halran asked.

Paula halted, tipping her head to fix the investigator with a level stare. 'Unless you have something else to add.

'What about Telfer?

'Good luck hunting him down.

'Are you going to help us?

'I won't put any obstacles in your way, political or otherwise. She left the vault, leaving Halran staring at his team in confusion and indignation.

Paula walked out of the administration block and glanced round at the forest. The air blasts had produced superficial damage, most of the clinic's buildings were still intact, and while the larger trees had been toppled there were still enough younger ones to maintain the forest once the dead trunks had been cleared away. A police cordon extended for several hundred yards, with uniformed officers reinforcing the patrolbots. Clinic ground staff were working with contractors and forestrybots to clear the worst of the damage. Little curls of smoke were drifting upward from the blackened ground where fires had burned for a couple of hours during the night before being extinguished.

She didn't pause as her field effect scanned round, but two of the contractor crew were red tagged by her u-shadow. Both of them were shielded, utilizing sophisticated deflection techniques only available to high-grade biononics. Hers, of course, were even more advanced. They were keeping their distance from the cordon, but her eyes managed to zoom in and snatch a facial image. Her u-shadow produced a cross reference for both of them in less than a second. Once upon a time, about a thousand years ago, Paula would have confronted them there and then. These days she liked to think she'd mellowed somewhat, although in truth it was more advantageous to let them think she hadn't spotted them.