They returned to their work.
An hour later, when the node sequence was confirmed and the archive materials had been photographed and backed up and the flat was as prepared as it was going to be for the morning, Alistair stood and stretched and watched the window.
"It's late," he said.
"Yes."
"We should sleep."
"Yes." Neither of them moved immediately.
"Tav," Alistair said.
"Yes."
"Whatever happens tomorrow — the upload, the nodes, Cain's response — we've done this correctly."
He held his gaze. "The archive is complete. The plan is sound. We've done the work."
"Yes," Tav said.
"So whatever comes after—" "We made the right choices."
Tav held his gaze.
"Yes," he said. "We did."
Alistair nodded once, the specific nod of a decision confirmed.
"Okay," he said. "Sleep."
They slept.
• • •
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
— NAOMI —
The borrowed flat in the hour before dawn.
Three people at the kitchen table. Two laptops. A spreadsheet and a drive and the full weight of what had been learned in the last seventy-two hours arranged between them on the table.
Naomi's hands were flat on the paper in front of her. She had been still for approximately three minutes — unusual for her, who moved through information with a continuous, active quality. The stillness was of someone doing a very large integration.
"All right," she said.
"All right?" Alistair said.
"All right, I've processed the relevant information and I have questions and I need you to answer them honestly because I'm going to be involved in what happens next whether you want me to be or not."
She looked between them. "The Pairing Protocol. It's not a cover story or a Ablation euphemism. It's literal — theyplaced you in proximity and studied whether you'd form an attachment."
"Yes," Tav said.
"And you did."
"Yes."
