Thalia walked to the core. It was a standard design, installed within the last twenty years, so she knew exactly where to start.

"This is Deputy Field Prefect Thalia Ng," she said aloud.

"Confirm recognition.".

"Welcome, Deputy Field Prefect Ng," it replied, in the neutrally sexless voice common to all cores.

"How may I assist you?"

Thalia brought to mind the one-time code with which she had been briefed after the cutter's departure from Panoply.

"Acknowledge security access override Narcissus Eight Palisander.".

"Override confirmed. You now have six hundred seconds of clearance, Deputy Field Prefect Ng.".

"Disable two-way access to the exterior abstraction."

"Access is now blocked.". The red lines vanished. Now the pillar showed only blue traffic. No signals were reaching or leaving the habitat. Almost immediately the blue traffic intensified as the citizenry began to panic, sending emergency queries to the core.

Thalia glanced at the man Sparver's whiphound was still detaining. For the first time in his life, his implants would no longer be in constant communication with the informational matrix beyond House Perigal. It must have felt like the drop of a guillotine.

She returned her attention to the core.

"Prepare me triplicate physical summary packages for all data traffic in and out of this habit in the last thousand days."

"I am preparing the packages. Please wait a moment.". Thalia reached up and touched her throat microphone.

"Thalia, sir. We're securing the evidence now. We should be back with you within ten minutes."

There was no response. She waited a few moments, giving Dreyfus time to activate his own microphone, but still nothing came. She shot a look at Sparver.

"I'm not getting anything."