"Available," Tav said.
"To whoever has been watching."
"Yes."
"That's—" She stopped. "That's a very complicated situation."
"We're aware," Alistair said.
"Are you worried about it?"
They looked at each other again.
"We'll deal with it the same way we've dealt with everything else," Tav said.
"Together," Alistair said.
Naomi looked at them with the journalist's full detail — the one that gathered information and filed it and found pattern.
"You're not afraid," she said. Not accusatory. Wondering.
"We're cautious," Tav said. "Afraid is a different thing."
"What's the difference?"
Tav thought about this.
"Afraid is diffuse," he said. "It spreads across everything and makes everything seem impossible.
Cautious is specific. It keeps the variables distinct and manageable." "I was afraid for a long time. I'm not, now."
Naomi held his gaze.
"What changed?" she said.
Tav glanced at Alistair.
Alistair glanced back with the warm expression.
"Incentive," Tav said.
Naomi was quiet.
Then she opened her laptop.
"Right," she said. "I need to brief you on the publication timeline. I've been working with three outlets — I trust all of them, and the simultaneous publication means no single one can be pressured to withhold." She pulled up a document. "I need the complete archive transferred to me in a format I can work with before six a.m. I need eight hours to structure the initial release. And I need you both to confirm what you're willing to be named as — as sources, as subjects, as witnesses."
"All of it," Alistair said.
She watched him.
"We want our names on it," he said. "Not for any reason — not to protect ourselves, not for leverage.
Because it's our story too. And Elias's." "And Lucien's."
Naomi looked at Tav.
"Yes," Tav said.
