She nodded. You could see she still didn’t want to talk about what she went through back then, almost a decade ago. “Where did all this wood come from?” she said, putting her hand on the paneling like it was the fossil of some extinct pterosaur. “Look at that grain.”

“I don’t know,” said Donny. “No doubt Miles had the full provenance, but he never told me.”

“I’m still sorry about what happened to him,” said Xelina.

“Thanks,” said Donny, looking at the ghosts in the room. “I suppose taking over his lease wasn’t the best way to cope with his loss.” Donny didn’t mention that he had missed the last two payments on that lease.

“It was the right way to honor his memory,” said Xelina. “To carry on his work.”

Donny nodded.

“He was a good dude,” said Clint, looking out the window. “Sucks that they never could figure out who killed him.”

“We haven’t given up yet,” said Donny. That was true, except there wasn’t much of a “we” anymore.

“At least you finally got justice for this guy,” said Xelina, looking at one of the photos on the wall.

It was a picture of Donny standing with Sig, one of his most famous clients from the uprising. Slider had started out in one of Sig’s gangs in New Orleans. Sig went on to build a bigger gang that led a series of cross-country raids and even helped liberate the White House, only to be jailed as a scapegoat for having the balls to rob the Federal Reserve and keep the money instead of giving it to the cause. Killing politicians was one thing. Taking the banks’ money was a whole different deal.

“Yeah,” said Donny. “That was actually easier than you would think. Mainly because his sister called in some favors, along with some powerful backers. I just came up with the idea to offer up his leaving the country in exchange for an early release.”

“Such bullshit,” said Xelina. “It’s not what we fought for.”

“I know,” said Donny. “But I think he was actually kind of happy about it. He’s a freeborn man. More of a Rover than any of you ever were, like literally born to roam. He told me he was happy to see the world across the ocean. I even paid for his upgrade to a nicer berth on the ship.”

“He’s lucky they didn’t put him with the live animal cargo,” said Clint. “I miss him. Is it true he’s in Russia?”

“That’s what I heard,” said Donny. “Hanging out somewhere in Siberia, with actual nomads. But that’s mostly word of mouth. Sig’s not the kind of guy who sends a lot of postcards.”

They sat.