"Yes."
"The apartment is going to be swept by morning."
"I know."
"Everything we need is already with us," Alistair said.
Tav held his gaze.
"Yes," he said.
The pre-dawn city was doing its minimal work. The streets were empty.
CHAPTER FORTY
— LUCIEN —
The industrial district node was first.
A hardware installation in a converted storage unit — small, anonymous, exactly the infrastructure that disappeared into a city's background — with the fail code that Lucien had transmitted via encrypted message and the physical access that required Alistair's fingerprint alongside the drive's signal.
It took four minutes.
Alistair's jaw was tight throughout from the ribs. He didn't say anything about it and Tav didn't push.
NODE 11: COMPLETE. DISTRIBUTION ACTIVE.
They exited back into the city.
One more.
The university precinct at 4 a.m. was quiet with the emptiness of academic areas at pre-dawn — the particular emptiness of buildings that had been heavily populated and were now between uses, the ambient hum of infrastructure maintaining spaces for future occupancy.
Blackwood Heights was visible from the precinct perimeter.
The lobby showed no movement through the main entrance.
"They're inside," Alistair said. "Not at the perimeter. They'd expect anyone coming here to scout the exterior first — the positioning will be interior."
"Two or three, given available personnel after the station." Tav assessed. "They'll have the main entrance covered. Service entrance is accessible from the east alley."
"Which is where they'll expect secondary approach."
"Yes." "Roof access."
Alistair watched him.
"We already did one rooftop tonight," he said.
"We did."
"You've been shot."
"I'm aware."
A pause.
"There's a maintenance access from the building across the street," Alistair said. He'd looked it up. Tav had known he would. "Third-floor bridge connects to the service corridor."
