Isaac felt Lucien on the stairs ten seconds before the lock turned.
The pace was familiar: steady, tired, a man carrying files and his own thoughts. Then the door opened and the pace stopped, because Lucien had seen the second chair at the table.
He stood in the doorway with a stack of files under one arm.
He looked at Cael. Cael looked back, hands flat on the table, smile in place.
"Commander," Cael said.
Lucien set the files on the floor without taking his eyes off him. His right hand stayed at his side and did not go to the sword. Isaac found that worse.
"Why is he in the safe house," Lucien said to Isaac.
"He brought information," Isaac said.
"He brought it here instead of filing it." Lucien's voice stayed flat. "So he's selling something."
"He's asking for something. I haven't agreed."
Lucien closed the door and locked it. He stayed against it, between Cael and the exit.
He took your exit seat, Cipher said from the window glass. Nobody told him it was a game.
Isaac ignored it and slid the folded page across the table.
Lucien read it standing. Three locations, three schedules, three headcounts. His eyes stopped on the third and stayed there.
"There's a name here," Lucien said. "Underlined twice."
Cael said nothing.
"Dara Venn." Lucien's voice had gone very quiet. "That's line nine on my father's list."
Nobody moved. On the couch, Echo opened her eyes.
"Why does Solen have a name from Aldric Arclight's list?" Lucien asked.
"Ask him what she's actually looking for," Echo said. She hadn't sat up. She was looking at the ceiling. "He told Isaac she was recruiting. She isn't."
Cael's smile tried a new position and didn't find one.
"No," he said. "She isn't."
"Say it," Isaac said.
Cael let out a breath. "She's collecting." He looked at the page instead of any of them. "Fourteen months in Vael. The healings, the sick children, the CEO's son. You think a Crownbearer sits in an Old Faith hall curing people because she wants his money?"
"Go on," Lucien said.
"Program subjects don't age right. The bonds were forced, and they stay unstable. Those children get sick in ways the Bureau's clinics can't name." Cael turned a hand over. "A healer who can feel resonance doesn't need to ask who anyone is. They come to her. She only has to notice which ones glow."
Isaac thought about the pale child in the third row at Crestward Lane. He didn't ask. Cael didn't offer.
"The workshop," Lucien said. "It isn't a gathering point."
"It's where she keeps them," Cael said. "She has at least one. Venn, or someone I can't place yet."
"Keeps them for what?"
"I don't know." Cael stopped. "The council member does. I stopped asking."
Lucien looked at Isaac. Isaac looked at Cael.
"How does the cult know the program existed?" Isaac asked. "It was scrubbed. The records were classified."
"That's the part that scares me." Cael's voice lost its ease completely. "Somebody told them. Or sold it."
By the window, Wren turned her head. She took a second, the way she did when a word was worth spending.
"Two days is too long," Wren said.
Isaac stood.
"We move tonight," he said.
Lucien frowned. "That isn't a plan."
"It's a decision," Isaac said. "The plan is what we do between now and dark."
"And me?" Cael asked.
"You come with us." Isaac picked up the page. "Where I can count your pulse."
Ten minutes, Cipher said. I'm good at it.