Stephen stays back; Thorfin heads for the front of the house, following the cops who’ve just rushed in. David, freshly released from Immigration and in a foul mood, decides to go round to the back.

The cyberknight throws open the back door as Diamond kicks him. He gets outside, shooting the cop at the back in the leg before the latter can react. David spots this from outside, and shoots carefully into the fight; the cyberknight shoots back at Diamond, at point-blank range.

The two cops from the front of the house come through the back door, size up the situation, and luckily both decide to shoot at the cyberknight. He starts to flee, running at high speed and then leaping to try to get away; Diamond slams into him and knocks him to the ground, then grabs and pins him.

The cops catch up, having done the basics for the one who’s been shot, and backup arrives. (David uses his high-tech first aid kit on the victim, who’s surprised and grateful when he realises how much better he feels.) This eventually includes Detective Carlson, who’s not in a great mood, but Thorfin manages to persuade him that this is at least an outworld prisoner to keep the bosses happy.

The cyberknight, Pierre deVris, talks about his mission and recounts his briefing. He was sent to Atlanta by Bishop LaFleur (David has vaguely heard of him, and thinks he’s mostly on the administrative side of things) to look into Wu-Han (an ambitious lieutenant of Doctor Mobius, particularly interested in high-tech weapons) and Mameluke Al-Mu’in, one of the people killed at Barker’s house. He’s regarded as a money runner for Wu-Han, sent out to buy the services of people Wu-Han regards as useful. The briefing mentioned that he was “engaged in sacrilegious activities concerning the Possibility Chalice”, an artefact about which the Bishop clearly doesn’t know much – except that Wu-Han wants it, and the Council of Bishops has deemed it dangerous and also wants it.

deVris was disconcerted to discover, when he arrived in Atlanta, that Al-Mu-in had been murdered, and went to find out more. He was staying in the apartment where the team found him, though planning to move out before the corpse of the robber he’d shot stank the place up too much. When he saw an obvious non-native (Thorfin) walking down the road towards him, he fled. He doesn’t regard the crucifix as being of any particular importance.

Carlson sends deVris to the station, and gets a police cruiser to give the team a lift back to their hotel; he wants to talk to them in the morning. As they’re crossing the street to head for their rooms, there’s a sound of soft footsteps, and black-clad shapes drop down from buildings to appear around them. Their leader, wearing a red headband, speaks: “Pathetic stormers. I had hoped to meet more worthy and honourable opponents. Bring me their eyes.” The ninja attack… or try to, as Diamond guns down the first one. Thorfin waits for his moment, dodging and weaving, then hits the second in the leg with his mace, breaking the leg and knocking him down. David evades sword blows and shoots the third.

The leader’s disconcerted by this, and throws a smoke pellet, obscuring vision. Thorfin realises that his ability to detect gold might be useful, if the leader’s as high-tech as he looked; indeed, he is aware of a small amount of gold moving upwards. He calls this to Diamond, who rises vertically out of the smoke cloud as the others make their way towards its edges.

The ninja leader climbs fast, but Diamond effortlessly outdistances him. He’s heading up the side of a five-storey building, and managing to evade her gunfire, so she heads to the roof where she finds a black hang-glider, presumably left ready for his escape. She throws it off the far side, then waits on the roof for him. David and Thorfin, once they’ve got out of the smoke, shoot with pistol and crossbow; as the ninja comes over the edge of the building, Diamond unloads both guns at him, clearly hitting somewhere vital; he’s killed instantly, then loses his grip and drops to the ground.

On the bodies, David finds a white magnetic key-card with a chromed letter kappa; on the leader is a particularly flashy sword, and an envelope containing a sequence of handwritten numbers, which Thorfin speculates might be a safe combination.

The cops arrive (the team speculates that they may have been waiting until the fight was over) and call for a meat-wagon. David remembers that the chromed kappa was mentioned in the newspaper he was reading while waiting at Immigration; it’s the corporate logo of the new owners of the Magnolia Station Research Park. While it’s now getting on for 3am, there’s a feeling that it might be a good idea to head over there straight away before the ninja are missed…