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“She’s mute,” her father says from the table, where he leans back sipping ale from his mug. “Brea, come here, love.” The girl goes and stands next to him. He kisses the back of her head and gives me a grimace. “Been that way for years. Ever since her ma…” He squeezes her. She looks anything but comfortable.

There’s shouting as Alred delivers the water and booze. He comes back from Julii’s tirade flushed red, with a note from Victra. It’s just fifty lines of numbers.

“What’s this?” I call.

“Cryptogram,” she shouts. “Best I could come up with on short notice. Give it to Volga. She can use the array’s main uplink

to send it. But not while I’m in labor. I need a bodyguard.”

“I could take it,” I say, peeking through the door.

“Do you know how to force link to the holoNet and send a private encoded message?” I say nothing. “No, so stop trying to prove yourself and let the freelancer earn her keep.”

I mutter curses as I cross the room to give Volga her instructions and the cryptogram. “Ah, a cryptogram,” she says, one eye on the Reds. I don’t like the look of Cormac much either. “Oh, fifty lines. She did this in her head?”

“Apparently.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah, she knows.”

Volga tucks it away and I schlep over to the table to twiddle my thumbs. “Said your name is Cormac?” Volga asks the man from the door. She leans against it like a sentry on duty.

“That’s right, love. You got some good Common on you.”

“Why shouldn’t I?” she asks.

“Didn’t mean nothin’ by it. Sorry. Always runnin’ me gob.” He winces and sips from his mug.

He’s far younger than I thought he was even on second inspection. Not an old man at all. Maybe thirty. Why’s his hair so white? His hands are heavy and scarred. Eyes blood-red and set in a passive, kind face with a natural frown. I tap my foot in agitation. I don’t like him one bit.

“I am Volga, this is Lyria,” Volga says neutrally. “We’re not going to hurt you. I promise. We only need a place for the night. She’s in labor.”

“Thought Golds hatched out of big metal eggs.”

“They do not.”

He smiles. “Joke. You could have asked nicely. Woulda put you up. Be criminal to turn out a full-on woman in this.” His eyes dart to the drapes over the windows.

“Well, you see…” Volga begins.

I interrupt her. “Where you from, Cormac?”

He sighs. “Can me kids go to their room? They don’t need to be around women like you.” He nods to our guns. Volga looks ashamed.

“Just the little one,” she says. “The boy stays where we can see him.”

Cormac’s son drags a chair close to the fire and sits staring at it with his arms crossed. Brea looks at us, to her father. “Go on,” he says with a little smile. “Brea. Go.” She looks at the ground and slips away to the room, closing the door with barely a sound.

Cormac sighs. “Addled girl, but sweet. Appreciate the kindness.” His chair creaks as he leans back in it. “There was some men lookin’ for you. But I reckon you know that. Bad sort.”

“Red Hand?” I ask.

“That’s right,” he says with a solemn face. “Lookin’ for a Gold, they said. Victra au Julii. Didn’t say anything about the two of you.” Volga meets my eyes. “That’s her, ain’t it? The Julii? They showed us a holo. If they find out you were here…”

“They won’t,” Volga says. “We will not endanger your family.”

“We already have,” I say. Cormac and I know the rules.