"Leverage exists," Alistair said. "We just need to find the right application point."
Tav nodded.
Alistair was quiet, turning his coffee mug in his hands. As he does when he was thinking seriously — the warmth dimmed slightly, not cold but more focused, the full attention directed inward rather than outward.
"I need to tell you something," he said.
Tav waited.
"There's a contact I've been considering reaching out to," Alistair said. "External to Ablation.
Someone who might know what happened to Lucien — who might be tracking what Cain has done to previous operatives who stepped outside his parameters." "I've been waiting because approaching this person requires exposing our current situation to a third party."
"The contact is related to the previous pair," Tav said.
Alistair studied him.
"The timing," Tav said. "You've been aware of this contact since before I arrived. But you've been waiting specifically sincethe Protocol became clear." He held his gaze. "The contact knows about Lucien."
"Yes," Alistair said.
"You should have told me."
"I know."
"Alistair—"
"I know." He held the look. "I was waiting until I trusted the timing. Until I was sure that reaching out wouldn't—" He stopped. "Until I was certain that if this went wrong, I wouldn't be putting you in more danger than I was already in." "I was trying to protect you."
"By keeping information from me." "Yes." Flatly. "It was the wrong call."
Tav looked at him.
"Make the contact," he said.
Something in Alistair settled.
"Tomorrow," he said.
"Tonight," Tav said.
Alistair held his gaze with the expression of someone reassessing a timeline.
"Tonight," he agreed.
He reached for the encrypted secondary phone.
And somewhere in the city, a line began moving toward a person who had been waiting five years to answer it.
• • •
• • •
The apartment after the fortification had a different quality.
Not safer — it was safer, the sensor arrays and the acoustic adjustments had made it operationally more secure. But the quality change was not about the security.
It was about having done the work.
