19
THERE WERE GUARDS in front of the door to my apartment. Unfamiliar ones, in silver temperature retaining suits wearing red sashes. And there were additional security people whom I recognised as Asha’s guards, wearing silver suits, black or grey non-uniform clothing and no red sashes.
I glanced at Thayu and she showed me the screen to her reader, which contained a message from Devlin.
It seemed that in our absence, Ezhya had arrived and that he had been entertained in my absence by Asha and Nicha.
We went inside and found more guards in the hall. They knew who I was and waved Thayu through—she disappeared into the hub—but were not familiar with Federza and Lilona. We looked like bandits, all dirty and wet, and the guards wanted to see their ID. They inspected Federza’s gun—a solid, c
