Chapter 6: The Pattern in the Intake Records

The three of them met for the first time in the same room on a Thursday, in the unmonitored window after afternoon theory, in the east reading room that smelled of old iron and cold stone and something Elliot was beginning to understand was simply the building's resting state, its baseline exhalation.

Drift arrived last, sideways through the door like he wasn't entirely sure he'd been invited, which he hadn't been, exactly. Sable had said bring him if you trust him, and Elliot had thought about it for the better part of a day before he'd knocked on Drift's door. Drift had looked at him for a long moment and then said: I know. I've been waiting for you to ask.

Elliot hadn't asked how he knew.