"No," Tav said. "It's fine." A pause. "Show me later."
"Yes." He watched the sea. "The light is very good this morning."
"Yes," Tav said.
They walked.
The cliff path went north in the way of cliff paths that have been walked for a long time: worn smooth, clear, the edge on the right and the inland slope on the left and the sea below and ahead. a path that knew where it was going.
"The inquiry," Tav said.
"Ten days," Alistair said.
"Yes."
"We'll be ready."
"Yes." He studied the sea. "Naomi will prepare us thoroughly."
"She will." "After she prepares herself a second serving of everything we've told her."
"She's thorough."
"Extremely." He held the look with the warm expression. "It's one of the things I—" He stopped. "One of the things?" Tav said.
"I was going to make a list," Alistair said. "Of the things I specifically like about Naomi Reyes." "It's a long list. The thoroughness is high on it."
"Tell me the list," Tav said.
"Now? On the cliff path?"
"We have three kilometers," Tav said.
Alistair studied the path ahead.
"The thoroughness," he said. "The warmth that coexists with the precision. The way she asks questions that are both journalistic and personal simultaneously. The fact that she is exactly who she appears to be — there is no performance layer. The journalism is the person and the person is the journalism."
"The fact that she drove ninety minutes to a clinic at eleven in the morning because we had been shot at."
"We," Tav said.
"You were shot at twice," Alistair said. "I was shot at zero times but adjacent to the twice, which she apparently counted."
"She counted correctly," Tav said.
"Yes." Alistair fixed on the sea. "She's a good friend."
Tav was quiet.
"We've been collecting people," he said.
Alistair glanced at him.
"Lucien," Tav said. "Naomi. Evelyn, in her own way." He watched the sea. "People who are — on our side."
"Yes," Alistair said.
"I'm not used to having people on my side," Tav said.
