“I left the perimeter.”
I listened to the fountain running.
“I reached the first house as they were setting the second tube,” I said. “I stopped them.”
“How.”
I looked at him again. “With persuasion.”
The corner of Luca’s mouth twitched, not quite a smile.
“The convoy finished clearing the road about ten minutes later,” I said. “No mortars. Our column moved out intact.”
“You saved them.”
“I violated protocol.”
“But—“
“Protocol matters when you’re writing the report.” I straightened in my chair. “Command’s position was that I created an unauthorized exposure and introduced a variable that could have compromised the entire operation.”
“Could it have?”
I’d thought it over countless times. “If I’d been wrong about what I saw, yes. The convoy could have lost a man in a dangerous position, but I wasn’t wrong.”
Luca exhaled.
“Is that why you’re here now?” he asked finally. “With The Guardians.”
“Yes.”
“Because you moved to protect everyone.”
“Yes. And because Eamon asked me what the job of protection was, and I gave the answer they wanted to hear.”
“You would do it again,” Luca said.
“Yes,” I said. “I would.”
Luca stood. “Come with me.”
“Where?”
“The salon.”
He led me down the hallway, but stopped at the foot of the stairs. “One moment,” he said, and went up.
I heard his footsteps cross the floor above me. He came back down carrying the paper sleeve I’d seen in his room and held it up toward the lamp as he passed me.
“Iko Iko,” he said. “The Dixie Cups.”
He led me to the salon and crouched beside a cabinet beneath the tall windows, lifting a record player out with both hands.
Dominic’s voice from the doorway startled us. “I was wondering when you’d find that again.”
“You never use it,” Luca said, still crouching.
“I enjoy knowing it’s there.” Dominic moved to the chair beside the window, crossed his legs, and settled into a comfortable posture.
