"Naturally," says Rush, trying and failing to cast his tone in the intended dry indifference. "Obviously I was not about to leave her there."

He finds the idea of leaving either Asadi or Greta to the mercies of ROMAC to be, at the time and even now, in theory - difficult to think about.

Arista twitches her whiskers in a manner that is somehow ridiculously reminiscent of a stifled snicker.

"They're gone, in any case," he says with something approaching his usual level of brisk equanimity. "ROMAC. Thank fuck."