Wixa didn't call Maiga in the morning. She wanted to hear the answer from her, see her face, and of course be ready to argue with her if she had to.

So she stood at the door of Maiga's quarters and leaned on the buzzer. No answer. Well, still early, she may still be in bed. Wixa kept on buzzing. If Maiga was in bed she soon wouldn't be. And she'd be mad. And she still wasn't answering.

Wixa frowned and took out her Snapper. She brought up one of her own special programs on it and transmitted a signal at the door's electronic lock.

The lock exploded.

After a moment Wixa stopped cowering against the wall on the other side of the corridor and glared at the door. Okay, that was not funny. Probably not aimed at her specifically though; Maiga must have anti-tamper devices implanted in the lock, she's no fool. And, Wixa concluded, she's probably not in there, since she hadn't come running when her lock became a shower of sparks. Unless she now stood waiting, with a gun aimed at the door.

Right. Right. Wixa tapped some instructions into her Snapper as she walked away. She found a small café in the tiny square of shops in the middle of this floor of accommodation blocks, and sat watching her Snapper. A moving image showed on it now, of metal walls, dust and darkness pierced with grid shadowed patches of light at intervals. No sound.

Glyph moved through the air vents until he reached one in Maiga's quarters. Screwed shut of course, but he could look through, and Wixa could see through his eyes into the dark room, his night vision engaged.

The place was always neat as a pin of course, but now more so. On a table, which squared up perfectly with the sofa, sat a small collection of things. The plant Wixa gave Maiga. The throw for the sofa, folded into a neat square. Pictures from the walls.

Tears pricked Wixa's eyes again, and she tried to resist them. Unthinkable for her to weep twice in two days. She sent Glyph to look into the bedroom and bathroom, but as expected found them also dark and empty.

Despite talk of showering in the dark she was pretty certain Gry had no cameras in anyone's private quarters, mostly as she'd threatened to kick his arse up and down the length of the station if he even thought about it. So he didn't know Maiga's quarters stood bare and empty.

Wixa called him. On a channel nobody else monitoring the comms on the station could tap in to. Paranoia was less a disease and more a survival trait around here.

"We failed. She's gone."

"Yes," Gry said. "The Friss left at three in the morning."

"But... I have the Friss flagged in the traffic control computer," Wixa said. "I'd have got an alert."

"She's not an amateur, Wixa. And maybe you're getting rusty."

She felt rusty. As if her joints were seizing up. And she wanted to weep again. Not for herself now, but for the station. For Jimmy.

"Why didn't you call?"

"I didn't want to wake you."

"You imagine that I was sleeping?"

"Then I didn't think there was much point."

No. Not much point to anything any more. End of days.

"We failed," Wixa said again.

"You know something. I'm not so sure."

Wixa raised an eyebrow. He sounded happier than she expected.

"Do you know something I don't?"

"An almost infinite amount I'm sure, my pupil. But this time... It's just a feeling."

So, a madman had a feeling things were going to turn out all right? Well, what had she been worried about?

~o~

Maiga checked her scanners. She checked her course and made some minor adjustments.

She waited.

She made herself a sandwich. She listened to some music. She lay on her bunk and felt sorry for herself for a while, then got up and did fifty push-ups. She showered.

And she waited.

The ship moved along at a good rate. A steady pace it could hold for weeks with the power packs Maiga had brought along. All she needed to do was make course corrections and then figure out what to do with the rest of the twenty three hours and fifty-five minutes of the day.

The waiting ended two days out of Hollow Jimmy, when she was sitting in the cockpit, drinking tea and watching the stars. The scanner told her what was coming. Trying to escape would be useless. Not enough speed.

She waited.

A moment later the stars in front of her shimmered and were blocked as a ship dropped out of light speed and into normal space. It hovered over the Friss like a hawk about to stoop on a helpless rodent in the grass. The distorted lines of the ship identified it at once.

The Trebuchet.

Maiga smiled.

"Well, hello, little mousey."

End Book 5