"There was a previous pair," Alistair said. "That's all I know. There was a previous attempt at whatever this is, and itdidn't — the available information is that it didn't end well." He didn't look away from Tav's face. "That's all I know."
Tav noted the weight of what wasn't said and filed it carefully.
"You should have told me," he said.
"Yes."
"Why didn't you?"
Alistair looked at him with the particular expression he wore when he was being honest in a way that cost him something.
"Because," he said, "if I told you on day one, you'd have reported to Ablation immediately and the placement would have been dissolved and I would never have — " He stopped. Looked at the window.
Looked back. "I didn't want that."
The honesty of it was disorienting in the way of things that were clearer than expected.
"That was selfish," Tav said.
"Yes."
"And manipulative."
"Yes."
"You prioritized what you wanted over—"
"Yes." Alistair's voice remained level. "And I'm telling you that honestly rather than explaining it away, which I could do — Ablation would have dissolved the placement, that's genuinely true — but the real reason was that I didn't want to lose the possibility of this before it was even a thing." He held Tav's gaze. "I'm not going to pretend that's not what it was."
Tav found his face.
"Tav," Alistair said. "Say something."
"I would have stayed," Tav said.
Alistair blinked.
"If you'd told me on day one, I would have reported it and Ablation would have made the same calculation they apparently made and I would have stayed in the apartment anyway, because the assignment structure would have required it." "You didn't need to conceal it."
Something crossed Alistair's face — the complicated movement of someone processing information that contradicted an assumption they'd been carrying for a while.
"I thought you'd leave," he said quietly.
"I don't leave," Tav said.
And the word — so simple, the word he'd used twice in twelve hours now — seemed to do something to Alistair that Tav watched carefully and filed away with all the other things he was beginning to understand about this person.
His phone buzzed.
Ablation.
SURVEILLANCE
INTERFERENCE.
WINDOW
MOVED.
