Dorac dived for cover as the car started strafing bullets into the group of officers. Several spattered the machine he sheltered behind. One officer was struck on his body armour before he, too, could take cover. He staggered but survived.

Beside Dorac, Agnes had managed to draw her gun.

'Who fucking idea was this?' she yelled.

The officers were returning fire under Colonel deSalva's direction. Dorac wondered if that was a good idea.

'It's a bluff!' he called. 'Don't waste ammo!'

The car didn't stop as it drove past the bar. As police bullets struck the vehicle, it turned its guns on the front windows and sent a fusillade of shots into it. Another weapon appeared and a grenade was neatly tossed through the demolished facade.

The car accelerated but a police paranoid stepped out in front and fired a missile. The dull crack of the projectile through the car's exterior was followed instantly by a satisfactory contained explosion that was shaped and sized precisely to destroy the interior while preventing collateral damage.

'That's what they should have used to kill the Nuncio,' said Dorac as he lay beside Agnes. 'There wouldn't have been a riot then.'

Agnes didn't seem to hear him. She spoke into her fone.

'Lawson here. Anything?'

Hovering in the air around the district were sniper paranoids watching for movement in the surrounding streets. Anyone abroad had been logged and recorded, and was now being tracked by both camera and satellite.

'No suspicious targets in sight.' The AI's flat, calm voice did nothing to quell Agnes's excitement.

'Keep searching.'

Officers cautiously approached the burning car, plasma rifles ready. But they already knew the result: there had been no one in the car, just AI.

'I agree, a waste of ammo,' muttered Agnes. She cast an eye over Dorac beside her as they remained behind the machine. 'I'm fine, thanks for asking. I managed to dodge all the bullets.'

'That's a relief. Look, this stinks. Nancy's around somewhere. She likes to watch.'

DeSalva approached, keeping low in case Nancy could see him and felt less than enthusiastic about the result of her attack.

'Are you all right?' deSalva asked Agnes.

'Yes. Sorry about leaving like that. I just couldn't take sitting there any longer.'

'It was a damn stupid thing to do.'

'I know. But Nancy's too smart, she'd recognise an ambush.'

Dorac had told deSalva that before the ambush was set up, but the man hadn't listened then either.

The Colonel's fone beeped. 'Contact!' said a sniper paranoid. 'Area six two nine alpha.'

DeSalva started snapping orders. The working crew transformed into proper police officers as they removed their outer clothing. Police cars appeared from hiding, opening their doors as they approached the squad.

Dorac and Agnes headed for one of the cars, but deSalva raised his hand. 'No. We can handle this now.'

'Don't be stupid!' Dorac continued to push his way into a car, and found himself looking at the business end of a pistol.

'I have my orders,' continued deSalva. 'We will arrest Nancy Jong. Thank you for your help.'

Agnes touched Dorac's shoulder as the vehicles roared away, sirens blaring.

'They'll get her,' she said.

'They'll screw it up. We need to talk to her.'

Agnes pulled him further along the street where her car was parked. It had been decided for the sake of appearances that she should arrive at the bar in her own vehicle, make it look all natural. They climbed in and Agnes followed the police cars.

In the passenger seat, Dorac took out the pistol the police had provided him with and checked it. 'Stupid piece of shit this is,' he muttered. 'I'd do more damage if I threw it at her.'

'A minute ago you said you wanted to talk to her.'

'I'm a Sirian. We change our minds often.'

They turned the corner. The police had prepared well. Whatever direction Nancy appeared in they would be able to mount a pursuit, aided by snipers placed on roofs and cameras that were the usual surveillance devices already set up around the city. The ride through the streets was bumpy considering the low gravity—if Agnes turned a corner too sharply the wheels of her car, largely designed for use on Earth, left the road on one side and slammed back down. Dorac gave up trying to inspect his weapon, even with the safety on.

Up ahead, the police cars had stopped. Officers struggled with something in the road. Had they caught her already?

'Nice work,' muttered Dorac as they climbed out of the car and walked over. 'Even for Colonel deSalva's men.'

It was Nancy, dressed, as Dorac had predicted, in body armour. A sniper rifle lay beside her on the ground. An officer sat on her back to fit some restraints on the woman's wrists. The air was thick with shouts and Nancy's swearing. Overhead a paranoid hummed and dodged above their heads, weapon trained on the captive.

'Congratulations, that was quick work,' said Agnes.

She may well have kept silent for all anyone acknowledged her. They hauled Nancy upright as a nearby police car opened its doors.

'Might I suggest—' Then Dorac caught the look in the Colonel's eyes and shut up. He turned to Agnes. 'I hope they know what they're doing.'

At the door of the car, Nancy seemed to notice them for the first time. Dorac waved and stepped over to her.

'Hello, Nancy.'

'Fuck you,' she said. 'Fuck you all.'

'I've had days like that too. Look, Nancy, my family on Eridu is very keen to know what's going on, why you killed the Nuncio.'

'Guess.'

He wanted to shake her, but that would only make things worse. There was no reason she should say anything. What did she have left to lose? If they could have interrogated her, if they and plenty of time like with Franco, they might have obtained something worthwhile.

'Why?'

Then she laughed. 'The look on your faces. Not knowing.'

Was she trying to be funny?

'You're caught, Nancy. Do one good thing in your life. Just one.'

There was a pause, and Dorac thought was refusing to answer. But after a moment she glanced up at the sky, smiled, and then looked down at him again.

'All right, what the hell? You're not a Sape, so I guess I don't hate you so much. I'll give you something to think about. The Nuncio knew about Zeus.'

He barely caught the words, turned to look at Agnes as if to confirm what the woman had muttered.

'Knew what about Zeus?'

'About the rogue sub-routine.'

'What's that mean?'

But Nancy wasn't looking at him anymore. She wasn't looking at anyone, just staring up at the sky.

'It's here,' she said.

Dorac wasn't going to look—fortunately, the police holding her didn't either. The oldest trick there was.

'What's that?' asked Agnes.

Now Dorac looked. Something was up there out in space, shining in the sunlight that gleamed beyond the night-bound side of the Moon. A bright star, brighter than a planet, brighter even than Jupiter with which it shared the sky. A large object had just arrived near the Moon, an object that wasn't supposed to be there.

When he looked back at Nancy, she was smiling. 'It's too late now,' she said. 'Rix is here. It's the end of the world.'

'What?'

Dorac stepped away a few paces to get a clear look at the object in the sky. It was visibly moving against the darkness. A ship maybe, except it was too big. Agnes appeared beside him.

'I don't like the look of that at all. What was that she just said?'

'It's the end of the world.'

'Something makes me believe her.'

Two shots behind them; Dorac flinched. Over by the police car, one of the officers had fallen to the ground. The other was holding his arm; dark blood trickled through his fingers. Nancy was running for a dark side street. Dorac tugged his gun from its holster, but the woman had already gone. He loped after her for a moment, then stopped as the sound of police sirens came from the other end of the street. DeSalva had arrived, but too late.

The Colonel scowled as he contemplated the two wounded officers and dispatched a number of others to pursue Nancy.

'We'll get her,' he said. The paranoid was already streaking to towards the alley.

'She's not important right now,' said Dorac. He felt like a hypocrite saying it—it had been on his insistence that deSalva was pursuing her in the first place.

The Colonel frowned. 'What do you mean?'

Agnes had hardly taken her eyes off the bright star. 'Is there a military base near here?' she barked.