She stood perfectly still, her mind working at a fever pitch, dissecting his words, looking for the trap, the hidden edge.
"So," she said, her voice steady, "you are telling me that there is a grander architecture at play."
"A project of such magnitude that my entire life's work has been a mere component in its assembly."
"And you will reveal the nature of this project only when you are confident enough to describe it without the risk of it collapsing under its own weight."
"Yes," Rex said. The word was a heavy stone dropped into a still pool.
"That," she said, a small, bitter smile touching her lips, "is the most honest thing you have said to me in six months."
"Yes," Rex replied, and there was no denial in it, only the satisfaction of a man who had finally found a peer.
The silence returned, but it was different now. The tension hadn't vanished; it had simply changed shape.
