Her smile did not change. “Why are you here, Carlyle? Is there a problem in the Saneer-Weeksbooth bash’?”

“You taught me to be a spy, Julia. Don’t think I haven’t used it on you, too.”

“Did you record the call just now?” she asked. “Should I say, ‘Oops’?”

“I recorded that one, and dozens of others, today and many days.” Carlyle’s steps were slow, the fatigue of a grueling night weakening her limbs like flu.

Still Julia smiled. “You mustn’t read too much into how I talk to them like it’s a game. You and I really have been guarding the world from them, Carlyle, keeping the set-set poison out as best we can. I let them think I think it’s just a game because it makes them give away so much to me, you heard how much.”

“I don’t believe you, Julia. But, right now, I actually don’t care. I’m not here to confront you about our noble battle against the Mitsubishi brood being a sham. I’m here to make you save the Cousins.”

“Make me?” Her smile brightened. “You are feeling stronger after your first session with Dominic. Did you enjoy it? I see you’re not wearing your old scarf anymore.”

Carlyle’s throat was indeed naked for once. “I’m not going to let you bait me, Julia. This is serious. The CFB scandal is going to drag the Cousins down, and all that we’ve created with it, all the hospitals and orphanages, the greatest charitable network in history. You can stop it.”

“I can?”

“Yes, only you.” Carlyle sank into one of the pudgy armchairs. “You don’t see how, do you?”

Julia leaned back. “I hadn’t thought about it.”

“I didn’t think you would have. You have the CFB, Julia. You have Darcy Sok and the others. I encouraged you to make them your parishioners because I thought you were the best one to help them.”

“Mmm. A wise decision.”

There it flashed in Carlyle’s blue eyes, the chill of diamond, almost keen enough for murder. “I know you’ve been exploiting Darcy Sok. Not a lot, not enough to threaten the world order, just having them push the Cousins in directions you suggest from time to time, plus…”

“Plus?”

“Plus the other sorts of things you like to make parishioners do. You’ve broken your vows, Julia, over and over. I’ve recorded that, too.”

“Have you?” She picked at her nails. “How enterprising.”

“Yes. And now that I know Dominic, I see where you learned your style from.”

“Mmm. We cross-pollinated, Dominic and I. Did you like it? Dominic’s technique.”

Carlyle did not avoid her eyes. “We’re not talking about me for once.”

Julia laughed. “If you don’t like what I do to my parishioners, why didn’t you do something years ago? You kept feeding me more people, that makes you guilty too.”

“True. I’m guilty. I wasn’t even deluded, or, if I was, I was willingly deluded. I let things continue, spying, manipulating, because it made me feel good, and because I believed you were doing more good than harm.”