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“Look who remembered where we live,” Handful said. He grinned, then hugged me too.

Indira came from the front room and looked me over. “You’re looking better.”

“I am.”

“Good.” Indira stepped in and hugged me. I stiffened at the surprise, then hugged her back. When she let go, she punched me in the arm.

“That’s for my friend,” she said.

❧

On Thursday, Handful walked the route while I watched the feeds from a van. The first problem was in a service passage. On the plans, the camera covered it. On my screen, Handful turned a corner and vanished.

“Stop there,” I told him over the radio.

“You’ve lost me?”

“Completely. Come back two steps.”

He appeared again. We took the escort route through the next passage instead and walked it twice to make sure I could see him all the way through.

The second problem was at the garage exit. The gate took too long to open after a vehicle reached it. Handful had Tilden’s security lead ride out with him so the man could see how long the car sat there waiting. After that, he agreed to use the other exit. We tested it before changing the route.

At twelve fourteen, Wren sent a photo of Sparrow trying to eat the doctor’s stethoscope. All fine. Apparently this is today’s lunch.

I looked at her little fist around the tubing and wished I’d been at the appointment. I sent back, Did she cry?

Only when he took it away.

I saved the photo and went back to the feeds. Handful still had half the route to walk, and the security lead wanted to see every change we’d made before his principal got in a car.

At four, the man shook my hand and said the advance package was the best he’d seen from anybody.

“That’s because he built it at midnight in a fishing town with nothing else to do,” Handful said.

“Then keep him there,” the man said, and got in his car.

Handful and I stood in that parking structure and laughed. On the ride back to the clubhouse, he asked how Sparrow’s appointment had gone.

“Healthy. Tried to eat the doctor’s stethoscope.”

“Wish you’d gone?”

“Yeah.”

Handful nodded. “I missed Wilder’s last appointment. Austen sent me pictures and called as soon as they got home. I still spent half the day staring at my phone.” He glanced over. “He’s started recognizing my bike. Austen says he hears it pull in and starts kicking until I come through the door.” He smiled. “I didn’t think he’d know the sound yet.”

I’d worked for Venom from Kettlewell for two months. Today Handful had trusted me with the route, then asked about my daughter. I hadn’t forgotten how to do the job. I’d forgotten how good it felt to do it with my brothers.

That night, I went back through the new wing. The door to the ops room was open. I’d avoided it since I arrived, but I went in.

It’s a room. Monitors along the wall, towers under the desk, the chair. Handful had done exactly what I asked and the far wall had nothing on it but a corkboard and a fire extinguisher, the way it did before. No printouts. No highway stills. No red string. He’d even filled the pinholes. I hadn’t asked him to.

I stood there and waited for the video to come back.

It didn’t.

What came instead was ordinary and much stranger. I remembered Wren in the doorway with two plates, telling me to come out of here because it was two in the morning. I remembered her sitting on the desk with her boots on my chair while I worked a job I couldn’t talk about. She never asked. She was just there. I remembered writing four letters on that whiteboard, her writing four back the next morning.