Outside, a VTOL ’s thunder roared. I got to my feet shakily and shook my head to clear the ringing, glancing around. The door I’d smashed to kindling to get clear of the explosion hung from shattered hinges behind me.

There goes one expensive grenade, and one extremely expensive piece of Iranian muscle.

If I hadn’t been hurting so bad, I might have laughed. I dug in the satchel slung across my back. I pulled out four derms and quickly thumbed them down, hard, across my inner wrist. The painkiller came down like a feathery hammer on the lancing pain in my ribs, and I shakily pushed myself to my feet.

The console on the desk beside me beeped twice, and I looked towards it. The screen was blank.

“Shit, man!” Louise’s voice. “You fucking crazy? That was last resort only!”

“Just wanted to blow shit up. Where’s it at?”

“Fucking knockers on their way now. Shit’s not in the system. Gonna have to look.”

“Looking for chips?” Not Louise’s voice.

There was Ismail standing in the doorway, soot-blackened and huge.