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I carried Sparrow out to the long bench, where Moff sat at his screens. “Seb showed me how he got through. My name’s on JW’s health plan, with a dependent listed under it.”

Moff’s hands stopped over the keyboard. He looked toward the meeting room, where Seb waited with his laptop. “You want him in on this?”

“I asked him to show you. I want that hole closed.”

Moff nodded and went to get Robin.

Seb set his laptop beside Moff’s screens and walked them through the filing. Dion came in partway through and stayed to listen. I pulled up a chair at the end with Sparrow on my lap.

It took forty minutes and I understood about a third of it.

Twice Seb came around to show me what he meant. Each time I stopped him with a question, he turned the laptop toward me instead of giving the answer to Robin.

The second time he stayed beside me. One hand on the bench, laptop turned toward me. He’d taken off his jacket, and I could smell the soap he’d used since before we met.

At the clubhouse, he’d sometimes come into the kitchen after midnight while I made grilled cheese. He’d lean over my shoulder and steal a bite before I could get it onto a plate. I’d tell him to make his own, and end up giving him half. I wanted to turn my head and find him that close again.

Sparrow got a fist into his cuff and held on while she looked at something else entirely. Seb kept talking with his arm caught. Dion saw it and smiled at her.

Sparrow let out a delighted shriek while Seb was explaining a field on the screen. He stopped and looked down at her.

“She has a question,” Dion explained.

“She can wait her turn,” Moff said. He kept his eyes on the laptop, but his mouth twitched. Seb caught my eye. This time I didn’t hide my smile.

I asked what a schedule of obligations was. He explained it, still close enough that I could have put my hand on his back. I kept my hands around Sparrow instead.

I hadn’t been that close to him in over a year. I missed it.

Moff’s systems were clean. So was the version of Robin he’d wanted Seb to find a year ago. Seb said it without grudging either of them the win. Robin looked down at the bench.

The weakness was with the benefits administrator. JW had to give them real names for the health plan. Once Seb knew where to look, he could find my record and the dependent listed beneath it.

Moff put both hands on the bench. “Right.”

“You wouldn’t have found it in your systems,” Seb said. “The record sits with the administrator. That’s where I got in.”

“I should’ve mapped the obligations.”

“So should I. I’ve spent a week in my rented kitchen feeling superior about your paperwork. I’ve never tried this route into Venom.” He shut the laptop. “I’m checking it tonight.”

Robin made a noise that was very nearly a laugh.

“There’s four more like it,” Seb said. “Not as bad. Same kind of weakness. If you want them, I’ll write them up and you can close them in an afternoon. Then nobody can find any of you that way again.”

Moff took off his reading glasses and set them on the bench.

“You’d write that up?”

“Tonight.”

“For nothing?”

“Moff, you protected Wren and Sparrow for a year. I’m not sending you a bill.”

Moff glanced at me, then back at Seb. He’d spent ten days looking for a flaw in his own work. Now he put his glasses back on and opened a clean page in his notebook.

“Send it to me tonight,” Moff said. “I’ll read it immediately.”