The planning was done.
It had been done since the afternoon, since Mara had looked at the rebuilt schematic and the twenty-four minutes and said *good* in the voice that meant she had nothing left to improve. Since Suri had redrawn the contingency map for the last time and folded it and put it in her coat. Since Tal had run the access sequence four more times until he could recite it without looking. Since Nia had memorized the surveillance cycle down to the second and closed her eyes and recited it back and Rell had checked it against his notes and said *correct* without looking up.
They had all left by nine.
Nia first, with the particular efficiency of someone who processed anxiety by being somewhere alone with it. Then Tal and Suri together, their voices fading up the stairs. Rell
last, pausing at the bottom of the steps with his notebook under his arm, looking at Aiden and then at Kael with the expression he wore when he was feeling something he'd decided not to write down.
