'Oh, I think I've got over that sort of thing by now. He's not the first man I've seen killed.'

Shatner waited, in case I made the silly mistake of adding something, of protesting too much. I didn't.

The phone rang again and the sound brought the sweat out on me, because that had been tricky going. 'You couldn't have been listening,' Shatner was saying on the phone. 'I asked for no more calls.' He dropped it and sat back again and I saw a look of sudden fatigue on his face. I suppose he'd been up most of the night too, because Signals would have passed on my message about McCane. This man had also had his executive wiped out on home ground and without any warning, and he must have had a lot to do in the last few hours.

'I don't know you,' he said, 'all that well. I'm not keen on running people I don't know.'

I didn't say anything. If I begged for this job I'd never get it.

Pressing the bridge of his nose, his eyes squeezed shut, You've got a reputation for giving your controls a bad time. I'm not keen on that either.'

I got out of the chair, and a spring twanged. Well there's only a couple of boards active, so you've got plenty of people to choose from.'

I was at the door when he said, 'I rather think this is a time for tolerance, don't you, on both sides.'

'I was trying to make it easy for you.'

He got up too and moved around, not looking at me now, needing to think: that was my impression.

I stayed by the door. 'I've called Westerby in from Bucharest,' he said.

'To take over?'

'Yes.'

'How's his German?