"I'm aware."
"It's been shot twice in the same location in the span of six hours."
"I'm managing it."
Lucien looked at him with the same expression of someone who found a particular brand of understatement both frustrating and recognizable.
"He does this," Alistair said.
"I can see that." Something moved in Lucien's face. "Cain's network is in secondary protocol. His sanctioned team has dispersed — the police presence made continued engagement untenable."
"He won't stop. But he'll be slower now. More careful."
"He needs to be," Tav said.
"He will be." Lucien stepped down from the fire escape. He was slightly taller than Alistair, with the way someone who had spent five years in a survival mode that had made them lean in a way that wasn't weakness but wasn't health either. "There's a car two blocks north. Driver's one of mine. He'll take you to the coastal safe house — I've confirmed the route is clean."
"And you?" Alistair asked.
"I'll follow in forty-eight hours." He studied his brother. "I have residual coordination to complete.
The distribution monitoring, the first wave of government contact." "And I need to ensure Evelyn is adequately positioned before Cain can remove her as a liability." "She'll survive this?"
Lucien was quiet.
"She helped me survive," he said. "I owe her an effort."
Alistair nodded.
"Forty-eight hours," he said.
"Yes."
Another moment of the charged quiet between them — the years and the distance and the things said and unsaid and the difficulty of two people beginning to rebuild something that had been destroyed by someone else's decision.
"Lucien," Alistair said.
"Yes."
"We're going to have the conversation."
"I know."
"Not tonight."
"I know." Something softened in Lucien's expression. The control fractionally reduced, showing something underneath it that was neither professional nor managed. "Whenever you're ready."
"When we've both had sleep and food and the shoulder situation has been properly addressed,"
Alistair said, glancing at Tav.
"All three of those conditions will be met in the next twenty-four hours," Tav said.
Lucien held his gaze.
"You're going to be difficult to argue with," Lucien said. "Aren't you."
"Generally."
