Alexander looked at her with an expression that was neither suspicion nor acceptance, but rather a mix of both, reflecting his genuine uncertainty about how to resolve the situation. Then he moved toward the kitchen.
"I'll make tea," he said. "Send him down."
Rex came down four minutes later with the secondary relay analysis document in his hand, which was a detail Elizabeth had suggested and which he had decided to include because it was the kind of detail that made a thing convincing rather than merely plausible.
Alexander was at the kitchen table, and he looked at Rex with the straightforward attention he applied to most things.
"Early start, huh?" he said.
"The analysis doesn't wait," Rex said.
"No," Alexander said. "I suppose it doesn't."
He poured a second cup and pushed it toward Rex. "Elizabeth tells me you've been here since early morning."
"The secondary relay section needed—"
"She already told me," Alexander said, not unkindly. "Sit down."
Rex sat.
