After they had showered and dressed, Jayce led them up three flights of stairs to the library.

Shelves of books lined most of the walls from floor to ceiling with additional shelving jutting into the room at right angles. Two desks sat parallel at one end of the room and a large low table covered in green baize occupied the other end.

In the middle of the wall opposite the door a filled but unlit fireplace was accompanied by a pair of oversized leather armchairs. Any wall space not filled with books or windows was instead home to unfamiliar artwork and maps of worlds and countries none of them recognised.

Jayce touched a finger to a biometric sensor hidden in the frame of a painting depicting a tall, bearded man in a velvet red cloak that looked almost real. The painting slid aside to reveal a hidden safe.

'Your things will be safe in here. Even your staff will fit, Tila.'

'I'm keeping it with me.'

'Why? You're not going to need it. Leave it in here. It'll be okay.'

'It's okay with me, thanks.'

'Tila, stop embarrassing us,' said Ellie. 'Nothing's going to happen.'

Tila grunted but handed it over along with her pack. 'Fine. How do I get it back?'

'Just touch your thumb here, like this. That's it, now your print is in the system. I'll do Ellie and Malachi next, and then any of you can open this when you like, okay? It's the guest safe, and you three are the only guests.'

Tila insisted on testing the safe by opening and closing it with each of their fingerprints, twice, before she entrusted her staff to it. Behind her, Ellie gave Jayce a little embarrassed smile.

Meanwhile, Malachi had found something else interesting in the room. He pointed at the green table. 'What is that?'

'That's called a pool table. You ever played?' said Jayce.

'Where does the water go?' said Ellie.

'Not that kind of pool, Ellie,' said Malachi.

'But it's a game?' said Ellie.

Jayce reached underneath the table and pulled out a wooden tray. On it was a triangular frame filled with coloured balls. He placed them at one end of the table and set a single white ball at the other.

'An old game. My dad likes it. I'm not very good,' said Jayce.

'How do you play?' said Malachi. He stroked the baize with his palm. 'I assume you have to get the balls in to the holes?'

'You got it. You use one of these cues and you have to hit the white ball into the others.'

He tossed Malachi a tapered stick about the length of Tila's staff.

'Like this.' Jayce bent over the table and his fingers formed a bridge on the table surface. He rested the tip of his cue between two knuckles, drew back his cue and in one smooth motion he struck the white ball low, and just to the left of centre. It careened down the table into the triangle of coloured balls, sending them clacking in all directions. The white ball, meanwhile, rolled slowly back up the table toward the corner pocket on Jayce's left, and fell in.

Ellie clapped. 'It went in! Did you win?'

'Um, no.'

Tila looked on doubtfully. 'Wouldn't it be easier to just hit the coloured balls instead?' she said.

'Well, yeah, but that's not the game,' said Jayce.

'But it would be easier,' she insisted.

'It's against the rules, T,' said Malachi.

'Well, they're stupid rules.'

'It looks like fun,' said Ellie.

'I'm sure Jayce would be happy to teach you,' said Tila, and gave Jayce a look that warned him not to.

Jayce lay his cue on the pool table. 'That's not why I brought you here anyway,' he said. 'I thought we could take another look at your data. You know, to be ready for tomorrow.'

Tila grudgingly accepted this. It made sense. For some reason, Conway had rejected their evidence. That didn't make any sense unless they had fundamentally misunderstood the data they possessed. It seemed like overwhelming evidence to her, but it had been discarded out of hand but Conway and Yoshihiro. Did they have a good reason to dismiss it? From what they had learned since their arrival Conway was certainly no saint, but even so, the seed of doubt had been planted. Maybe they had missed something after all. It didn't make sense otherwise. Another look at the data might help them see it through Conway's eyes. At the very least they would be better prepared in the event they could get it in front of someone tomorrow.

'Fine,' she said. 'Malachi?'

'Catch,' said Malachi, and tossed her the chip.

Jayce pressed a button on the side of one of the desks and the wood grain surface was replaced by a computer interface. He traced the outline of a rough circle on the screen with his fingertip. The outline reshaped itself into a perfect circle and started blinking white.

'Put the chip on there,' he told Tila. She placed it in the circle which flashed twice and filled with green.

Jayce tapped elsewhere on the screen and icons and controls glowed to life. 'Okay, there's not much on here. Which is the important part?'

Tila shoved Jayce to one side. 'What do you mean, there's not much there? We had lots of data. Mal!'

Malachi set down his pool cue and hurried over. 'You can't find it?'

'There's nothing to find. Only some software tools,' said Jayce.

'You're doing something wrong,' said Malachi. 'Let me see it.'

'Be my guest.'

'It was all here earlier when—'

'When we gave it to Conway,' Tila finished for him.

Malachi lifted his hands from the screen and stared silently at Tila. Then he said what they were both thinking.

'He deleted it?'

'But why would he do that?' said Ellie.

Tila snatched up the chip and waved it at Ellie.

'Because Jayce was right. Conway can't be trusted. He's deleted everything we found because we know too much.' She slapped it back down on the table.

'But deleting it doesn't change what we already know,' Malachi pointed out.

'Then he doesn't want us to prove anything. To him or anyone else. We should never have let the chip out of our sight.'

'Did Conway make a copy?' Jayce said.

Tila threw a sharp look at Malachi. 'Did he?'

'How am I supposed to know that? Maybe, if he wanted a closer look at the data himself.'

'Then we need to go back and find it. Jayce, drive us there,' said Tila.

'Whoa! I can't, I have guests arriving. And the building will be closed now. What are you going to do? Break in?'

'Okay.'

'Tila, you're being unrealistic. Maybe that's how things work where you're from but you're not getting in that building tonight without an access card. It's impossible.'

'I don't like impossible, Jayce.'

'Hey, you don't have to like it. But it's not going to happen. Not tonight. Look, maybe there's something we can do in the morning, but not now. Look at the time. My friends will be here in a minute. I need to go and welcome them. You can stay here or come down to the garden. Whatever you think is best. Really. But you've got to forget about getting back in that building tonight. Make a plan and we can do something tomorrow. Okay?'

He shut down the computer and the desk was woodgrain once again. Ellie picked up the chip and gave it back to Tila.

'I'm going with him,' she said simply, because she didn't know what else to do.

'Tila?' Malachi said when Ellie had left the room. 'What are you thinking?'

'He's stalling. He's hiding something from us.'

'Jayce? Is he, though? He wouldn't know how. Even if he was up to no good he wouldn't have the smarts to fool us. He's no genius. What he said makes sense. We can't get back in there tonight. We got kicked out of two other buildings during the day, remember. What he said sounded convincing.'

'It sounded too convincing.'

'Are you sure you're not just, you know, disbelieving him because you don't want to trust him.'

'Why don't I want to trust him?'

'Because of Ellie. You don't like the way they're looking at each other.'

'Mal, we don't know anything about him! And she's too young! And nothing is working the way it's supposed to! I thought it would be easier than this. What kind of person wants to hide the truth?'

'The people making money from the lies. Tila. We'll find someone who wants the truth soon.'

'When?'

'Soon. Tomorrow. We can start again tomorrow. Tonight, let's rest and see what happens. Maybe we can find out more from Jayce and his friends.'

Tila weighed the empty data chip in her hand for a moment, then tossed it to Malachi. 'I still don't trust him.'

'Ellie seems to.'

'That's not a recommendation. And this isn't a race. Do you trust her judgement here, now?'

'You might be wrong about him.'

She shook her head, certain she was right.

'I'm not wrong. Whatever he's up to it's only for himself, just like everyone else in this city.'