‘That could have gone better,’ Rani said as we stood outside Pellegrini’s. A cold wind whipped along the street, raising a little dust and making her shiver.

‘Couldn’t have gone much worse.’ My phone buzzed with a message and I groaned when I read it. ‘Just when we could have used some help, too.’

‘What is it?’

‘Bao says she’s found the base of operations for the Ragged Sisters.’

‘I thought she was going to Hong Kong.’

‘It looks as if she’s put it off for a while. Unfinished business, maybe. Whatever, she wants to see us.’

Rani was silent for a moment. ‘Am I being overly wary if I say that I find this suspicious?’

‘You think Bao’s up to no good? Wow, that’s some amped-up suspicion radar you’ve got going there.’

‘It’s my training.’

Rani leaned against a lamp post, rubbed her forehead, closed her eyes and took three or four deep breaths.

Uh oh. ‘What’s wrong?’ I asked.

She took a while to answer. ‘I don’t know if I can do this.’

‘What? This is your thing! You’re the supreme warrior queen we rely on!’

She opened her eyes again. ‘That’s what I mean. I don’t want to be good at killing.’

‘Oh. Right. I see.’

‘What if I start to enjoy it, to revel in death? Or what if I start to hesitate over the whole business and then put us both in danger, which would be just as bad?’

‘You know, it’s sort of reassuring that you’re worried about stuff like this. If you weren’t, then I’d be very, very nervous.’

‘Thanks, Anton, but I’m not sure how much that helps.’

‘Hey, I don’t claim to have answers for you, just support.’

‘And our plan was to recruit Kirsten and Jamie for just that,’ Rani snapped. ‘Before you lost your temper and drove them off.’

‘I—’

Rani held up a hand. ‘Anton, I think I need a moment by myself.’

Before I could respond, she turned and strode up the hill in the direction of Parliament House. I hesitated, feeling like an idiot, then while the trams and the traffic went past in Bourke Street, I checked the ghost spotters’ social media, which was going berserk. Sightings were through the roof and a few informants had a touch of panic in their postings. Some were asking where everyone was, as if people had gone dark, into hiding, which wasn’t going to help things at all.

We had a busy night ahead of us.

Rani came back, walking purposefully. ‘Let’s go.’

‘Uh huh.’

Rani sighed. ‘I’m sorry, Anton. I didn’t mean to snap like that.’

‘That makes two of us. I shouldn’t have ruined it with the Scots like I did.’

She gave a wan smile. ‘We’ll have to make the best of it, then, won’t we?’