Tav stood in the kitchen and studied the apartment they'd built together and thought about what it meant to have built something with another person. Not planned it — executed it. Moved through a space together with shared purpose of two trained people whose individual capabilities were different but complementary.
The north coverage: Tav's sensor array.
The acoustic modification: Alistair's adjustment.
The counter-surveillance tap: Alistair's equipment.
The corridor panel alarm: Tav's placement.
Neither of them had directed the other. They had moved through the apartment like people who had been doing this together for long enough to know where to be and what to do without discussion.
Which was not accurate — they had been here for months, not years — but which described the quality precisely.
"You moved the furniture in the main room," Tav said.
Alistair looked at it. "The sightline from the east window was creating a reflection issue for the sensor array's range."
"I would have moved the sensor array."
"The furniture movement improves three sightlines simultaneously," Alistair said. "The sensor array adjustment improves one."
Tav considered this.
"Yes," he said. "The furniture is correct."
Alistair watched him with the expression that appeared when Tav said something that was both obvious and that Alistair had been prepared to argue for.
"Thank you," Alistair said.
"It was correct," Tav said. "I'm confirming the correctness."
"Yes," Alistair said. "That's what thank you is for."
The apartment around them. The fortified, inhabited, jointly-occupied space.
"When Cain moves," Alistair said.
"We'll know in advance," Tav said. "Evelyn will—"
"She'll do what she can," Alistair said. "And then we'll need to move." He watched the apartment.
"Whatever we've built here."
"It travels," Tav said.
Alistair looked at him.
"What we've built here," Tav said. "Doesn't depend on the apartment." He held the look. "It travels."
Something in Alistair's expression settled.
"Yes," he said. "I know." He fixed on the window. "I know."
• • •
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
— NAOMI —
