"Especially then." "Because I'm going to do something with it regardless. The question is whether I'm doing it with complete information or not."
Alistair looked at his hands on the table.
"I know about Lucien," he said.
The kitchen went very still.
"Not everything," Alistair said quickly. "Not — I don't have a way to contact him. I've been trying. But I know he's alive." He looked up. "I've known for four weeks."
Tav held this.
"Four weeks," he said.
"Yes."
"Since week two."
"Since week two." His voice was even. "I found a trace in the Ablation operational network. A monitoring ghost — someone who'd been passively accessing real-time data from the apartment's surveillance feed without being authorized to do so. Someone who wasn't Cain."
"Lucien was watching the surveillance feed."
"I believe so. He — if he knew about the placement, he'd want to know I was safe. He'd find a way to watch." "I've beentrying to send a response through the same access point. Letting him know I know he's there."
"Without telling me."
"Without telling you." He held the look. "I'm sorry."
Tav was quiet.
Not processing — he was past the processing. He had already run the assessment: Alistair had held this for four weeks out of a genuine desire to protect both the approach and Tav from the weight of it. It was the wrong choice, made for the right reasons, a category he understood because he had made it himself.
"Next time," Tav said.
"Yes."
"When you know something, I know it."
"Yes." "And I need the same from you."
Tav looked at him.
"What do you know that you haven't told me?" Alistair said.
"The surveillance vehicle that's been on the west approach for the last three days isn't Ablation," Tav said. "The technical signature is different. Someone else has eyes on this building."
Alistair found his face.
"How long have you known?"
"Three days."
Alistair's expression held. Then, very slightly, something in it moved toward something that was almost, in different circumstances, a laugh.
"Three days," he said.
"I was assessing the approach."
"Of course you were."
