Tila brought the cruiser to a halt one block from Conway's building. She shut it down and planned her approach. This was a dumb idea, that part she was sure of, but Malachi had started this with his dumb idea, and now it was up to her to fix this.

They had arrived on Parador with a plan. Maybe not the best plan in the world, but it was the best they could do with what they had. The plan had no value now. All they could do was react. Maybe that's all they had been doing. They reacted to the discovery on the Juggernaut. Ellie reacted to the chance to race. Malachi reacted to Blake, and now Tila had reacted to Malachi. There was no plan any more, there was only the need to get Malachi out of here and get off this planet.

Maybe it was time to stop pretending.

Tila curled her fingers around the staff and stepped out of the cruiser. The last hundred metres she would travel on foot. She could develop an awareness of her environment that wasn't possible inside a vehicle, and she preferred having her feet on the ground.

The staff safely on her back, Tila jogged down the street, keeping to the shadows. Ahead, the darkness shifted and brightened. A cruiser turned from a side-street, and passed by. The headlights pooled into the cracks and shallows of the street around her, and for just a moment the bright lights of the vehicle made the shadows around her deeper and sharper. Then it was gone. The rear lights of the cruiser receded into the distance, pushing a cone of light before it.

Tila would have to cross the street to get to the Conway's office. A wide, open space. No cover. She paused to plan her next move and it began to dawn on her slowly how well defended the building was.

They were not defences in the traditional sense, of course, but here, as an infiltrator hiding in the dark, she saw the building through different eyes. Those elements which in the daytime had appeared merely decorative she could now see were really defensive barricades. The oversized stone planters were really a wall with gaps. Pedestrians could move through them freely, vehicles could not. The steep steps gave the higher ground to the building security. From there they had reach and a commanding view of the streets outside. And the guide rails on the steps were not there solely to keep people from falling. There was no straight path up and in. Visitors were corralled up and down the steps at odd angles to the main doors, forcing them to be fully visible from the main lobby. The guiderail's layout reflected the details of the building's walls, the pattern in the brickwork and the layout of the planters. Each detail blended into the next until all you saw were plants and steps and a doorway. It was almost obvious in hindsight. As a visitor earlier that day, they were details she had just accepted as nothing more than the landscaping around the building. Now that she was trying to sneak in unnoticed, she could see just how cunning and subtle the design really was. It forced the casual visitor to arrive on foot, through a predetermined path.

Only an idiot would try to get a vehicle up there, she observed.

Tila watched the lobby from the across the street for a few moments more. She looked for movement of any kind, a shadow, a reflection, anything that might indicate there was someone in the room she couldn't see. But there was nothing.

The street was clear, so she broke cover and ran across the street. Tila flattened herself against the side of the building and crept to the front. Nothing had changed. She moved around the corner and up the steps keeping her back to the wall, and all her senses alert. Skills long-honed in the labyrinth of the Juggernaut were being tested tonight. Gone were the tight corridors of the city. That was an environment of metal tubes where a simple breath of air, or hiss of a pressure change, or vibration felt through the walls and floor could tell you if anyone approached.

Here the sky was open, the walls and floor around her rock, and the wind blew freely. The horizon in the Juggernaut would take you only as far as the next corner, but here, if you stood in the right place, you could see forever.

Tila had not been planetside for years, and her skills were weak. She knew it, and so forced herself to approach the building slowly and carefully, despite every instinct screaming at her to hurry up and get Malachi out.

Despite the hour, the city was nearly as brightly lit as noon. Street lamps, signs, the ebbing traffic and the buildings themselves all emitted light. Sneaking up to the entrance was next to impossible. She never thought she would have missed the darkness of the Juggernaut, with its shadowy nooks and black corridors.

She took the steps two at a time, weaving through the planters until she could see inside. The lobby was still and empty. No one staffed the desks. No one circled the room. There were no visible guards, although security cameras were prominently located at all doorways inside and out. That struck her as odd. She knew cameras could have been concealed anywhere in the building, and in a city like this everyone knows they're being watched constantly. Clearly, Conway clearly didn't want anyone to forget it.

There was still no movement inside. Tila climbed the last few steps to the main door. It didn't open for her this time. She pushed and pulled to no avail. Great. Now what?

Tila considered her options. They were few and time was short. Tila sighed.

Maybe I'm the idiot.

She balled a fist and rapped her knuckles on the glass.