Aiden's tell was the way he set his book down.
He came into the suite at three twenty-seven on Tuesday afternoon, fifteen minutes after his corridor walk should have concluded, and he set his Imperial Economic History textbook on the central low table in the position the team had agreed would mean *I have something operational to report and have already moved through the surface language to confirm I am not being followed.* The position was small — book lay flat, spine toward the door, pencil placed at the lower-right corner at a forty-degree angle. The signal looked like a student putting down a book carelessly. To the team it was a four-word message.
Lucien registered the position at three twenty-eight.
