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Lasper blinked at one of the guards, who opened it.

Jelly Hob ran, out of breath, into the room. His mouth sagged open at the sight of Samuelle’s nakedness. ‘Aww, Sammy.’ He automatically began to remove his filthy tunic.

‘Hob? What is it?’ Lasper gripped Bethany’s arm and shifted her back out of the way. Her face contorted as he held her in a painful grip.

‘It’s yer device, Commander. I come to tell ya. Weren’t Sammy who took it! Or her.’ He pointed at Beth.

‘How do you know?’ said Lasper.

Tekton shifted his invisible presence to stand alongside Hob. Don’t tell him, Jelly. Don’t say anything, he shouted.

Hob draped his tunic around Sammy. ‘Commander, let her get dressed.’

‘Jeremiah!’ rasped out Sammy. ‘Think before you speak.’

He smiled at her, a wrinkled, heartfelt movement of his battered face. ‘Not lettin’ you take me blame, Sammy,’ he replied softly, and looked across at Lasper. ‘Was me, Commander. Least, not me that took it, but me that was there, and let it be took.’

Farr let go of Bethany. ‘Speak plainly, Jelly. Or I’ll skin that dry parchment that keeps your organs in place.’

‘You’ll be doin’ that anyways, I’d be thinking, Commander. Was the Godhead, Tekton, that took it! I found ’im in here when youse was stationside. He was wearin’ Sammy’s other suit, and fetchin’ to get off the ship.’

‘Tekton of Lostol. On my ship? You’re sure it was him?’

No one spoke. ‘Beth?’

Tekton recognised the dangerous edge to Lasper’s tone.

Bethany did too, but she stood resolute against it. ‘I haven’t seen Tekton since Edo. I thought he’d returned home.’

She didn’t waver or flinch in her reply, and Farr turned back to Hob. ‘Are you saying that Tekton of Lostol … Tekton … took my device? How … ? Did you bring him on board?’

Hob shrugged and nodded. Sammy moved closer to him, her scrawny shoulder touching his.

‘I picked him up fallin’ free in the well on Edo. Not far from yer worshipping place. He wuz in a taxi, bein’ savaged by detrivores. Got him out jus’ in time. Whole thing disintegrated.’ He made an appropriate noise. ‘Can’t think what he wuz doin‘ there.’

Farr’s eyebrows lifted almost imperceptibly. Surprise. And irritation.

Tekton danced a few restless steps around them all. Yes, you psychopath! he shouted. I’m not dead! And I’ve got your precious device.

‘And you brought him aboard?’

‘Didn’t know what else ta do wiv him, sir. He wuz

kinda lost. I wuz thinkin’ ta drop him off at Intel. Let him be on his way.’

‘With my device?’ Farr’s tone had lost its quiet control, a note of wildness creeping in.

‘Din’t know he’d nicked it. Found him here all right. Figured he wuz just bein’ nosy, you know, seein’ how a fancy Commander lives and stuff. I took him down to the cargo bay and let him out. He musta taken yer thing when me back was turned.’

Hob’s explanation was so simple and ingenuous that Farr seemed confounded by it. Fists clenched, he stalked to a corner of the room and stood there, processing the situation.

Tekton watched Samuelle take Jelly Hob’s hand and squeeze it. She gave him a grateful smile for protecting her part in it.

As Hob grinned at her, Tekton was filled with conflicting emotions yet again. Delight led the field; he’d annoyed and trumped Lasper Farr in no uncertain terms. But worry undermined his pleasure – what had Lasper thought to use the device for? How had he planned to prevent the Extros from taking Orion? What would the repercussions be?

Then another kind of concern began gnawing. What would the insane Commander do to Jelly Hob now?

Of all the ’esques Tekton had ever met, Hob was the only one to have stirred any real sense of gratitude in him. Tekton didn’t even hold it against him that he’d told Farr who’d stolen the device. He was right to protect Samuelle. Consilience – their independent political organisation – might be the only group capable of stopping the Extros. And for Consilience to operate, Samuelle and Bethany needed to survive.

As Lasper stepped out of his corner and paced one quick circuit of the cabin, Tekton placed his imagined hand on Hobb’s shoulder,