Da Silva was playing with her. “You told me he died.”

“He did. Thankfully, they were able to bring him back.”

“With a head full of furies?”

“They pumped him full of UR, flushed out the furies with some of that magic Slasher medicine. Right now, the boy’s still in a coma. He may have irreversible damage to major brain structures, but we won’t know for a few days.”

“This can’t be happening,” Auger said. She felt like a spectator to her own conversation. “It was just a field trip. No one was supposed to die.”

“Easy to say now.” He leaned in closer, so that she could smell his breath. “Do you honestly think we can keep a lid on this kind of thing? We’ve already got the Transgressions Board breathing down our necks. There’ve been a lot of screw-ups down on Earth lately, and word is they feel it’s about time they made an example of someone, before something really stupid happens.”

“I’m sorry about the boy,” she said.

“Is that an admission of culpability, Auger? If so, it’s going to make things a lot easier all round.”

“No,” she said, her voice faltering, “it’s not an admission of anything. I’m just saying that I’m sorry. Look, can I speak to the parents?”

“Right now, Auger, I’d think you are about the last person in the solar system they’ll want to talk to.”

“I just want them to know I care.”

“The time to care,” Da Silva said, “was before you risked everything for a single useless artefact.”

“The artefact isn’t useless,” she snapped. “No matter what happened down there, it was still a risk worth taking. You talk to anyone in Antiquities and they’ll tell you the same thing.”

“Shall I show you the newspaper, Auger? Would you like that?”

Da Silva had it stuffed into his jacket. He pulled it out and handed it to her. She took it with trembling fingers, feeling all her hopes vanish in one instant of crushing disappointment.