‘They’re not traitors, they did what they had to so they could keep the institute going. They’re fighting the Fallers, just like us.’

‘Maybe,’ he conceded. ‘But I can’t get it out of my head.’

‘Is that why you argued with Javier?’

‘Oh crud!’ He ground his teeth together. ‘I don’t know. One second we were so pleased that we’d both survived, that we were in Congress together, that we were right all along, and that we could finally help people; the next thing it’s like I’m looking down on these two madmen screaming at each other. I knew I had to stop, but he just wouldn’t see reason. It’s crazy.’

‘Giu, the pair of you!’

‘I know, I know. I’m sorry. I was tired, that’s all. And still upset over Ingmar, Giu, the shock of that was unreal. I let it get out of hand. It won’t happen again. I promise you that. You do believe me, don’t you?’

‘You’re to sit down with him and talk this through like rational people.’

‘But . . . the mods, they belong to the Fallers!’

Her whole body stiffened. ‘I know that. But you will have to find a way to make the rest of Bienvenido accept the revolution’s authority. Once you have accomplished that, then you can sort out the mods and neuts.’ Her fingers gripped his chin again, and her stare was very intent. ‘You do understand that, don’t you?’

‘Yes,’ he said as the tiredness came back in an almighty wave that made everything seem irrelevant. ‘I know. But I will not rest until this world is free of them.’

‘One step at a time, my love.’ She kissed him.

‘Thank you. I was worried.’

‘Me too, when this happened. I didn’t know what to do.’

‘You always do,’ he said. ‘That’s why I love you.’

‘Not this time. But I have some strange news.’

‘What?’

‘The Goleford bridge has been blown up. About half an hour ago. An express only just got over it. They were lucky.’

‘Where’s Goleford?’

‘Uracus, you are tired. It’s the bridge on the Southern City Line.’

‘What? Where in Giu’s name have they been?’

‘I don’t know. I’m trying to get our agents to find out what’s going on, but it’s difficult to get messages over the Colbal right now. Every boat is full of refugees.’

‘We’re not tyrants,’ he snapped in annoyance. ‘We’re the opposite. Nobody needs to run away from us.’

‘I know.’

‘You have to get in touch with the sabotage team. We don’t want any more bridges blown up. As Javier said, we need to start building the economy back up.’

‘Oh, a sensible comment. I’ll put that down in my diary.’

‘Hey, I’m trying, okay?’

‘I know.’ She didn’t shift from his lap.

Slvasta’s ex-sight caught Yannrith entering the ante-room. ‘Come on in,’ he ’pathed.

‘Captain,’ Yannrith said. Anxiety was leaking through his shell.

‘What’s the matter?’ Slvasta asked wearily. He wasn’t sure he could take much more bad news right now.

‘I can’t find Coulan anywhere.’

‘He’ll be with Javier,’ Slvasta said.

‘He’s not.’

Bethaneve stood up. ‘I’ll find him. I’ll put the word out with my people.’

‘I’ve just come back from the Captain’s Palace,’ Yannrith said. ‘There’s something really strange been going on. Coulan’s militia, the ones guarding it, they’re all acting odd.’

‘What do you mean, odd?’

Yannrith shrugged. ‘As if they’re drunk, or something. It’s difficult to get them to say anything.’

‘They’re loyal to Coulan.’

‘No, it’s more than that. And something’s been taken. I had to ask hard, but I found that much out eventually.’

‘Taken?’

‘From the palace cellars. Uracus, Slvasta, there are some really bizarre things down there. Ancient things that I’ve never seen before, things from Captain Cornelius’s ship itself.’

Slvasta stared at him, trying to make sense of what was being said. ‘Coulan’s taken something from Cornelius’s ship?’

‘I’m not sure. But look, captain, you remember your last sweep with the regiment?’

‘I can hardly forget. What about it?’

‘We met those peculiar people we thought were narnik barons. The girl, the redhead, I forget her name, Nigel’s so-called wife. She’s here. I saw her riding one of the wagons on Walton Boulevard. They were all heading down the hill.’

‘What wagons?’ Bethaneve blurted.

‘The wagons that took something from the palace.’

Slvasta’s headache seemed to redouble in potency as he gave Yannrith a shocked look. ‘Wait! Nigel and Kysandra are here? In Varlan?’

‘You do know them?’ an equally perturbed Yannrith asked.

‘Nigel supplied all our weapons,’ Bethaneve said. ‘But – I don’t understand. What’s he doing here?’

Through all the pain in Slvasta’s head, the elusive memory that had taunted him for days suddenly crystallized. ‘Grunts!’ he exclaimed.

Bethaneve and Yannrith frowned at him.

‘You said it,’ Slvasta accused her. ‘The night we were arming the cells, you said we can’t give a gun to every grunt on the streets.’

‘So?’

‘I only ever heard that word used like that once before. By Nigel! They’re soldiers or troopers, privates, sergeants, corporals, officers – comrades in our cells are activists. But never grunts.’

‘Slvasta—’

‘What is going on?’ he demanded hotly. ‘Do you know Nigel?’

‘I’ve never met him in my life. You were the one that went to Adeone to meet him. You’re the one that did the deal for weapons. All I know about him is what you’ve told me.’

‘Then why did you call our cell members grunts?’

‘Are you crazy?’ she shouted back at him. ‘It’s a crudding word!’

‘It’s his word.’

‘Oh for fuc—’

‘What was he doing back then, when we found him on the sweep? What did he have on those boats? Is he a narnik baron? Wait! Was he your supplier?’

She flinched as if he’d struck her. All the emotion drained out of her expression. ‘Slvasta,’ she said in an icily calm voice, ‘you need to stop this. You need to get some sleep.’

‘Why is he here? What did he take?’

‘I want you to calm down. Lie down on this settee and—’

‘No. Something is going on. Javier’s turned against me. Is he collaborating with Nigel, too?’

‘Slvasta.’ A tear trickled down her cheek. ‘Please. No.’

‘I will find out!’ he roared. ‘By Giu, I will know what game you’re all playing behind my back! You think you can get rid of me? You think you can just waltz right into the Captain’s Palace and rule this world? Do you? Well, you can’t! I’ll stop you. I’ll stop all of you.’ He stormed out of the annex. Tovakar and the five bodyguards he commanded regarded him in alarm. ‘We’re going to the palace,’ he told them. ‘Sergeant, are you with me?’

Yannrith gave Bethaneve a helpless shrug, and hurried out, leaving her to sink to her knees as she started to weep.

*

There still wasn’t any real furniture in the Tarleton Gardens apartment. After Slvasta and Bethaneve had moved out, the empty rooms seemed even larger. There was nowhere to hide in any of them.

Javier’s ex-sight had been pervading it as soon as he climbed out of the cab in the street outside. Coulan wasn’t inside. Coulan wasn’t anywhere. Not in the palace, not in the hotel where the Captain’s family was detained, not with any of the comrades. Nowhere. Javier went upstairs to their apartment anyway. There was nowhere else for him to go. Afternoon sunlight poured through the big bay windows. He’d always enjoyed the sensation of space he gained from the rooms. Other people’s houses and flats seemed so cluttered. They valued things; he prized potential.

‘It brings out your optimistic streak,’ Coulan had told him one night, snuggled up in his embrace. ‘I like that.’

Now Javier looked down on the mattress with its wrinkled sheets where they’d spent so many nights together, just talking quietly about their plans and hopes or thrashing round in sexual bliss, and there was no optimism left any more. Like the rooms, he was empty.