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‘Hear her out,’ said a wiry man to Brusce’s left. ‘I’ve seen her on the work detail.’

‘Nothin’ to hear.’ Brusce thrust his finger at the women standing behind her. ‘Now go back to your work and leave us to make the decisions.’

Some of the young women edged nervously towards the door but Mira did not move. ‘Is that what you have told the mercenary?’ she said. ‘Isn’t she a woman?’

A few of the men hooted and Brusce waved them quiet. He spat at Mira’s foot. ‘Mercenaries ain’t real women and maybe you’re not one either. Maybe we should find what’s under that fine robe. You’re sure damn skinny for an aristo.’

Mira trembled. Would he rape her? Would he kill her in front of this crowd? She watched the sweat on his forehead trickle to his eyebrows.

The silence became a thick, dangerous thing.

It was broken by the click of boots on the floor. A rifle butt thumped onto the table. Some of the men eased back but the big man stayed where he was.

‘What’s your name, cazzone?’

Rast. Mira felt faint with relief.

The big man leaned across the table, his fists clenched and threatening. ‘Brusce is my name.’

‘What’s the problem, Brusce?’

‘This loco aristo bitch wants to teach women to fight.’

‘To protect themselves.’ Mira choked the words out.

‘That is our job,’ he spat back at her.

‘Quiet!’ Rast thumped the rifle on the table again. She eyed Brusce. ‘Have you ever been in a war before, son?’

The big man rocked the table with his clenched fingers as if he might pick it up and throw it.

Rast ignored him and sat down at it, one leg hooked over the other, the rifle laid casually across her knee.

From the corner of her eye Mira saw Catchut climb onto the bar.

‘Well, I’ve been in four of them and there’s one thing I’ve learned: there are no rules. When your life is threatened—whether you’re ‘esque or ginko—you’re capable of anything. Fedor here might save your carcass one day and you’d be lucky, because I’d leave you to die,’ said Rast.

Suddenly she dropped her feet to the floor, lifted her gun and shoved the muzzle into the soft part of Brusce’s neck. ‘Teach the women who want to learn.’

But Brusce clung to his belligerence. ‘Piss on you, mercenary. This is our world and we would have defeated these ginko bastards if you had not interfered. You tell us we must wait. Waiting is for cowards and women.’

Rast’s expression became so hard and so intent that Mira wanted to run from it.

Without warning she shot Brusce through the neck. His body flopped off his chair to the floor, spouting blood.

Mira sagged against the woman behind her, appalled. This was worse than seeing the ‘bino who had fallen under the tracks of the barge. Too close. Brusce’s blood was all over her.

Rast swivelled in a quick, tight arc. ‘Anyone else like to suggest I am a coward?’

Catchut slipped the cover from his rifle and pointed meaningfully at the crowd. Their gasps told Mira that the gun was no ordinary weapon: around her she heard whispers and grunts of disbelief.

‘I’ve said over and over that we need help to fight the Saqr. We wait until it comes. I’m not going to be responsible for a mass slaughter, though Crux knows why I care.’ Rast pointed her rifle at the man closest to her. ‘Now, you prehistoric pricks, teach these women to defend themselves.’

She grabbed Mira by the arm and strode out, pushing her ahead.

* * * *

In the shade of the Depot the mercenary rounded on Mira, her fists clenched in frustration. ‘What in Orion’s arsehole did you think you were doing, going in there?’

‘Why did you kill him?’ whispered Mira, dazed.

‘I mean, what do you think you’re doing? This town is wound tight as a screw and you want to start a cultural revolution.’

‘Why did you—?’

Rast took an impatient breath. ‘I killed him because they need to know that I mean what I say. And because ... he would have raped you to make his point. Men like that can’t let things go.’ She spat on the ground and thrust her blood-spattered rifle at Mira. ‘You still want to learn to use this?’

For a moment Mira thought Rast