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banged his down and reached into his pocket. He brought out a sheath and slid it along the bar to me.
    I twisted the catch on the sheath and touched the handle. The dagger inside it came easily into my hand. Not any dagger - the Cabal Coomera dagger - polished iron ore and with an astonishing ability to cut through anything. It had to be charmed, or voodooed or something.
    Not that I believe in all that spirit shit.
    Loyl stepped around Mei, touched his fingers to Honey’s golden hair and came to stand in front of me.
    This close he was half a head taller. I hated having to look up to anyone so I stared at his mouth.
    Bad move. Now I wanted to finger the curve of his lip.
    What’s wrong with me? He’s just made a pass at Teece’s girl.
    I held up the dagger. ‘This belongs to the Cabal. I returned it to them,’ I said.
    ‘I know.’
    ‘What are you doing with it?’
    ‘Let’s say it’s mine to give now. You can have it, Parrish. In return for something you have that belongs to me.’
    I risked a glance into his eyes. They were black with unfathomable thoughts and emotions. If I’d been a ‘Loyl’ believer I would have said he cared. But these days I actively resisted standing in his devotional queue.
    I knew what Daac wanted: Ike’s wetware - a piece of grisly alloy memory that contained all the research notes of his genetic fooling.
    What good will that do him now? He has no media money backing his pet project. His cash cow, Razz Retribution, is dead.
    ‘Things are moving ahead again. I have some potential investors.’ He answered my unasked question in the softest of whispers - more a touch than a spoken word.
    I swallowed hard. What was worse? Someone deliberately infecting Tert citizens with the Eskaalim parasite? Or Daac hell-bent on genocide by default?
    ‘You’re still going to do this?’ I hissed. ‘You saw what I saw. You know what your gene splicing has let loose. How can you ignore it? How can you just on with your crazy business?’
    Daac showed only a tiny flicker of irresolution, moving closer to me, turning his head at an angle so that no one could lip-read our conversation.
    ‘I’ve taken steps to destroy the original infected trial group. That only leaves you.’ He leaned down, his breath fanning my cheek. Threatening and intimate at once. ‘Why haven’t you come to me? You said you would.’
    I hesitated, appalled and relieved. He’d killed a bunch of people. People who would have become - might have already become - the thing I so dreaded. He was playing God again.
    And yet . . . at least he’d had the guts to try and tidy up the mess he’d made.
    There was only me left now.
    And I didn’t want his help.
    I also didn’t want to know that I’d seen through his lie that I had shape-changed.
    Anger came quick and hard in me. My thoughts flew in all directions.
    Daac had said the dagger was his to give now . That meant a change in Cabal Coomera politics. He was no longer an outsider. Somehow he was back in favour.
    No mean feat. The Cabal had ostracised him because of his obsessions - seemed they weren’t in line with Cabal law and beliefs. No matter how crummy and toxic the place where you lived was, there was always someone in charge of the show. The Cabal was at the top of the Tert pile. They ran the hits, scared the crap out of most of us and had the monopoly on the last word. If Daac was back in favour then his power had increased exponentially.
    I shifted my glance to Teece who’d shouldered his way in, blocking Mei and Honey out altogether.
    What a sad lot we were - raw with suspicions and jealousies. Flick a Zippo between us and we’d blow.
    Teece’s steady expression told me that Daac’s news was no surprise to him.
    Why didn’t he tell me?
    Mei squeezed out from behind Teece and tugged Daac’s arm.
    ‘Your pet needs a leash,’ I said.
    Mei raised her long fingernails toward my face in a scratching gesture. Daac pushed her hands down.
    ‘My people are merely