Chapter 492
KAEL.
I closed the door.
I stood looking at it for a moment.
“That wasn’t as bad as you thought it was going to be,” Aria said.
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“It was exactly as bad as I thought it was going to be,” I said. “In the specific way where it was entirely manageable and I’d built it into something larger in my head than it actually was.”
“Yes,” she said.
“That’s what I said,” I said.
“I’m agreeing with you,” she said.
I looked at the window. At the door. At the break that was now officially ending on Monday.
“I need to tell the others,” I said.
“They know,” she said.
“How-”
“Jordan has seventeen timestamps and a running total,” she said. “He knew you’d accept it today.”
I picked up the walkie-talkie.
“The break ends Monday,” I said into it.
The pause that followed was the specific pause of four people on a communication channel who’d been expecting this and were processing the specific quality of when.
“Monday,” Nina said.
“Monday,” I confirmed.
“That’s tomorrow,” Jordan said.
“Yes,” I said.
“So we have today,” Elite said.
“Yes,” I said.
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“Understood.” Elite said. “I’ll prepare the updated defense rotation briefing. Jordan, the intelligence files-
Chapter 492
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I thought about this. About the past week and where each person had been when I’d seen them – Jordan at meals, Elite in the defense rotation check-ins, Nina at the breakfast table and occasionally at the edge of the garden. The specific gaps in my picture of their week.
“All week,” I said.
“They found something to do with the break,” Aria said. “This is that thing.”
“They’ve been playing poker in Nina’s office,” I said.
“Apparently,” she said.
I opened the door.
The scene inside was exactly what I’d heard and completely what I should have expected.
Jordan was at Nina’s desk. Not Nina’s chair – he’d brought his own from somewhere, a chair I recognized from the secondary conference room, positioned at an angle to the desk that created a two-person table surface. The desk had been cleared of Nina’s documentation in a manner that suggested careful rather than chaotic removal – the files were stacked in a corner with the organizational precision of someone who’d moved things deliberately rather than pushed them aside.
On the cleared desk surface: cards. Two hands, face down. A small pile of what appeared to be wrapped sweets from the kitchen, functioning as chips. Two cups. Jordan’s notebook, open, with a running tally.
They’d been keeping score.
They had been keeping score all week.
Nina looked up when the door opened. She had the expression of someone who was winning and was not going to let the Alpha’s arrival interrupt the current hand before she’d established that she was winning.
“Kael,” she said. And then, registering Aria: “Aria.”
“The break ends Monday,” I said.
“You said,” Jordan said, into his hand.
“I wanted to say it in person,” I said.
“Very formal,” Jordan said. “Appreciated.”
I looked at the cards. At the sweet-wrapper chips. At Jordan’s tally notebook.
“How long,” I said.
“Day two,” Nina said.
“Day two of the break,” I said. “You started on day two.”
“Day one we slept,” Jordan said. “Day two was the first day we had time to set this up properly.”
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Chapter 492
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What is the current score,” I said.
I’m ahead, Ivory said.
“That’s not the score,” Jordan said. “That’s Nina’s characterization of the score.”
“It’s an accurate characterization,” Nina said.
“The score,” Jordan said, “is three to four in games won, which is Nina by one. But the point total within games is-
“I’m ahead,” Ivory said again.
“The point total is more nuanced,” Jordan said.
“I’m ahead now,” Nina said.
Elite was in the chair against the wall – the corner position she habitually took in rooms, the one that gave her sightline to all exits and all other occupants. She had cards in her hand and was looking at them with the expression she brought to everything.
“Elite,” I said. “Who’s actually winning.”