“Why not replace it?” she asked.
Mandla snorted. “Because engines don’t care what a maintenance log suggests.”
I crouched and checked the lower bracket. Warm metal under my fingers. Grease at the edge of the housing. The regulator cable had a hairline split near the clamp.
“There,” I said.
Mandla bent beside me. “I saw that.”
“You were testing me.”
“I was waiting for you to stop showing off in front of the guest.”
Behind us, Juliette said, “Please continue. This is excellent local theater. I haven't seen this much tension since my last board-room coup.”
I straightened. Mandla cut the power. The machine shuddered down. Silence rushed in hard enough to ring in the ears.
A moment later, the lodge lost power.
From across the yard came a ripple of voices. Doors opening. Someone in the kitchen swore with admirable creativity.
Mandla went back to the panel. “Ten minutes.”
Juliette stepped away from the doorway and out into the shade cast by the wall. Without the generator running, the afternoon sounds sharpened: birds in the thorn trees, cutlery clinking from the kitchen, the wind skimming grit across the yard.
I joined her in the shade.
“You look pleased,” I said.
Juliette watched the machine like it was a case study. “I like seeing what keeps a place alive.”
“Most guests prefer the version where the lights simply work.”
“Most guests have never had to keep anything standing.”
That stopped me.
She looked across the yard toward the lodge, where staff had already shifted seamlessly to backup routine. Lanterns out. Coolers opened. Service rerouted. No fuss. No spectacle.
“Your team’s good,” she said.
“They are.”
“They move like they trust each other.”
“They have to.”
She kept her eyes on the staff yard. “So does mine.”
The answer came out quieter than the ones before it. Not soft. Just stripped of the edge.
Sweat had dampened the loose strand of hair at her temple. A pale line of clay grit crossed one forearm where she’d leaned against the jeep earlier. Her mouth had gone serious. The kind of serious that looked expensive in other people and earned in her.
Mandla called from inside, “Mercer.”
I went back in.
Juliette stayed.
