"Cain. Or someone working for him."
"They couldn't stop the release." He set the phone down. "But they can undermine its credibility."
"If three of eighteen verification nodes lack the data—"
"Any institutional investigation will note the discrepancy. It becomes a question in every testimony, every inquiry. 'Why were three nodes incomplete?'" He studied the ceiling. "Doubt is cheaper than suppression."
"We need to complete the three nodes."
"Yes." He looked at Tav. "How's the shoulder?"
"Manageable."
"Tav."
"It's manageable." He met Alistair's eyes steadily. "The nodes are physical. Hardware installations. We need to be physically present with the drive."
"I know." A pause. "Do you know where the three nodes are?"
"Lucien's network should be able to identify them."
Alistair was already messaging.
The response came in forty seconds. The encoded coordinates resolved to two city addresses and one that made Tav pause.
Alistair had seen it too.
"The university precinct," he said.
"Blackwood Heights is in the university precinct," Tav said.
They looked at each other in the clinic's pre-dawn quiet.
"Cain secured our apartment," Alistair said. "After the archive went live, that would have been an immediate priority. Securing the site, recovering whatever materials we left—"
"It's also where he placed one of the three offline nodes," Tav said. "Which was not an accident."
"No." Alistair set the phone down. "He wants us to go back."
"He knows we'll have to."
"It's a position."
"Yes."
Alistair studied the ceiling again. The look of someone taking a complete account of all available variables and their intersection points.
"The industrial district node first," he said. "We confirm the approach before we commit to the apartment. And we go together."
"Yes," Tav said.
"Your shoulder—"
"We go together," Tav said. The same tone he'd been using since the rooftop when Alistair had tried to position them separately. Not aggressive. Just clear. Not something he was willing to discuss.
Alistair studied him.
"Yes," he said. "Together."
