"More time with the assignment as it was," Tav said.
"More time with—" He stopped. "With this," he said. "Before it became something with an endpoint."
Tav looked at him.
"It already has an endpoint," he said. "It had one before we knew about Lucien. Cain's Final Directive doesn't wait for us to be ready."
"I know," Alistair said.
"Telling me about Lucien doesn't change the endpoint. It changes what we can do about it."
"Yes." He watched the table. "Yes, you're right."
"We contact Lucien," Tav said.
"Yes."
"Tonight."
Alistair looked up.
"Tonight," Tav repeated.
He said it because it was the correct operational decision, which it was. He also said it because he could see what Alistair had been managing — the weight of knowing something and being afraid of what happened when it was known — and he wanted to make it manageable.
Alistair exhaled.
"Yes," he said. "Okay. Tonight."
He opened the secondary phone.
The connection to Lucien's access point was brief, specific, and confirmed by the echo pattern in less than thirty seconds.
READY WHEN YOU ARE, Alistair sent.
The response came in ninety seconds:
I KNOW. I'VE BEEN WATCHING.
In the kitchen at one in the morning, Alistair looked at those four words for a long time.
Then he turned to Tav.
"He's been watching," he said.
"Yes," Tav said.
"Since before we arrived."
"Yes."
"He knew about the placement."
"Yes." "He's been waiting for us to be ready."
Alistair was quiet.
"And are we?" he said.
