“Look,” said Nemo. “Patton is ex-military. I’ve seen how she acts under fire and I trust her not to fuck things up. You work at a museum doing math.” Though she knew he hadn’t intended it, Nemo’s words cut Patton deeply. Yes, when she had been under fire in Alta Vista that morning she had kept her cool, but that hadn’t always been the case. There had been times when the sound of a car backfiring had sent her diving to the sidewalk, her breath shallow and her pulse racing. She had spent two days in bed shivering after a helicopter had flown over her house. Even certain images on television could send her into a panic or a depression or something that felt like both. Even though Veterans’ Affairs called it post-traumatic stress disorder, Patton preferred the World War I term—shell shock. And she never knew when that shock would hit, what would trigger it. Ever since she left Alta Vista with Nemo she had been waiting for it to kick in and she feared it would attack at the worst possible moment. So maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing to have another member of the team. Someone whose touch—and Patton, in her independence, hated to admit this even to herself—could calm her. Patton had discovered that after they killed Erich. She had reached for Ruthie’s hand to soothe her and found, when that almost forgotten skin touched hers, that a peace seemed to radiate from it. Nemo would be next to useless if Patton suffered an attack of shell shock, but Ruthie might just bring her out of it and, in doing so, save them all.

“Maybe she’s right,” said Patton, crossing to Ruthie and standing shoulder to shoulder with her. “Maybe she’d be safer with us.”

“I don’t really care about her safety,” said Nemo.

“OK,” said Patton, “maybe we’d be safer.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean if we leave her behind, this Ingrid Weiss character is bound to send out another Fritz and Franz duo. They know we need an Enigma machine and they know about Alex and his collection. If they find her here they’ll put two and two together. And how long do you think she’ll hold out against enhanced interrogation?”

“Not long,” said Ruthie.

“But if she’s with us we can, you know, keep an eye on her.”

“Plus,” said Alex, “if she’s not here, I can deny knowing anything about all of this.”

Patton and Ruthie looked at Nemo, and Patton felt like a schoolgirl for a moment, asking permission to bring her new friend home.

“I also speak German,” said Ruthie. “Or at least enough to help out when we get there.”

“Enough to help me write some text messages?” said Nemo.

“I think I could manage.”

“Fine,” he said at last. “Can you shoot?”

“No,” said Ruthie.