The estate looked exactly as they had left it.
Which was, Mailah realized, slightly unreasonable. Ten days was long enough for things to change — for Theron's extraction to be completed, for security rotations to be adjusted, for the greenhouse ruins to be cleared to whatever state the grounds crew had decided was acceptable. The iron bones of the frame were still standing when their car came up the drive. Someone had planted something in the cleared interior. She could see it from the window — low, green, deliberate.
Grayson saw it too.
He said nothing. But his eyes stayed on it as the car passed.
---
Lucson was in the front hall.
Not waiting — Lucson didn't wait in the obvious sense. He was simply there, standing with a folder and the expression of a man who had been running things competently for ten days and had a list of things to discuss and a specific opinion about the appropriate timeline for discussing them.
He looked at Grayson.
He looked at Mailah.
