Cael sat at the table like a guest who had been invited.
That bothered Isaac more than if he had tried to look dangerous.
Cael took the chair facing the door, then turned it a few degrees so Isaac would see him choose it. Isaac saw. Cael saw him see.
He picked the seat with the best exit, Cipher said from the window glass. Then made sure you noticed. I like him.
"You don't like anyone," Isaac murmured, too low for Cael to catch.
I like people who show their hands, Cipher said. It saves time. It paused. I'm still deciding whether the name was an insult.
"You didn't offer a better one," Isaac said under his breath.
I'm not obliged to, Cipher said. You're the one who talks to glass.
Isaac ignored it and sat across from Cael. The folded page lay between them. Lucien had gone to the Bureau for the afternoon's files and wouldn't be back for hours. Echo lay on the couch with her eyes closed. Wren sat by the window, watching.
"Before you ask for anything," Isaac said to Cael, "I told you at the door you weren't hurting anyone. I was wrong."
Cael's smile stayed where it was.
"Echo," Isaac said.
The smile didn't fall. It just stopped doing anything.
"I filed three sentences from the breach point," Cael said. "Unregistered carrier. Location. Escort. What the Bureau did with them wasn't my decision."
"You knew what they'd do."
"I knew what they'd try." Cael waited a beat. "Yes."
It was the first thing he had said tonight with nothing on it. Isaac took that as the price of the rest.
"Then that's where we start," Isaac said. "You owe me before you ask."
"That's fair."
"Ask."
Cael looked at the page instead of at him. "If the council member learns I gave you that, I'm finished. Not demoted. Finished. I'd want an exit. Somewhere that isn't on a Bureau list, and a name that isn't mine."
"I don't make promises I can't keep."
"I'm not asking for a promise," Cael said. "I'm asking for an option."
Isaac let the silence run.
His pulse hasn't moved, Cipher said. Not once since he walked in.
Pulse isn't proof, Isaac thought back.
No, Cipher said. But I've been counting it for ten minutes, and I'd tell you if it lied.
"Crestward Lane," Isaac said aloud, to Cael. "Someone made sure I walked in with the wrong count. Who."
Cael's eyes came up. "The watcher on that street reported ninety-plus. I saw the raw report. It reached the council member's office. It came out the other side as fifteen to twenty."
"Edited."
"Not mistaken," Cael said. "Edited." He turned one hand over on the table. "Fifteen to twenty is a nest. Ninety is a congregation. You plan for a nest. You walk into a congregation with no time to think."
Isaac said nothing.
"Somebody wanted you in that room unprepared," Cael said. "Then they wanted to see what you did with the clause."
"I did what the clause said."
"Yes." Cael's voice stayed easy. "That's the part I'd worry about. Now they know."
The heating unit clicked. A tram passed on Valen Street, and nobody in the room looked toward it.
Isaac thought about Hael saying acceptable. About you may leave. About a man who had written several versions of a contract before Isaac sat down.
"The third location," Isaac said. "When does she move."
"Two days. Maybe less," Cael said. He tapped the page. "Old rune workshop in the outer third sector. She'll want her people together before she decides what Vael is worth."
Isaac unfolded the page, read the third line again, and folded it.
"I haven't agreed to your exit," he said.
"No."
"I haven't refused."
"I noticed."
"Then we have two days for me to decide whether you're worth the trouble."
"Reasonable," Cael said. His shoulders came down half an inch.
"He's telling the truth."
The voice came from the couch. Echo hadn't opened her eyes, hadn't moved, hadn't shifted her hand around the cold mug.
"He's just not telling all of it," Echo said.
By the window, Wren turned her head. She took a moment, the way she did when a word was worth spending.
"Yes," Wren said.
Cael looked from one girl to the other: the one who knew things she shouldn't, and the one who had spent seven years hearing everything through walls.
Isaac watched the smile try to find its position and miss.