Alexandra took another sip. “Did you come here on your fancy Berg?”

“Why does that matter?” He sighed and took an extra-long blink. “Is that what this is? You’re jealous because I have a Berg that actually works?”

“Can you utter even one sentence without condescension? That’s always your first thought—that we’re jealous or hiding in closets wishing we could be more like you. That’s not the case, Nick old boy. I have what I need and I have what I want. When you have everything you want, you literally don’t want anything. Does this concept make sense to you?”

His face flushed with anger, something he’d never allow to happen by accident. She was pushing her luck, and she relished it.

“The reason I asked about your Berg,” she continued, “is because I want to know where you’ve been. It’s been almost three months since Mikhail or I have seen you. Where have you been?”

“I’ve been away. I’ve been planning. I’ve been scouting. I’ve been spying. We have some pretty nasty enemies in case you’ve forgotten, but we also have many, many potential source communities. It’s time. The next wave needs to Evolve, and the Godhead needs to take its proper place—you know, on top of the heap. I’d be happy to hear your arguments otherwise. Go.”

He pointed at her and settled deeper into the couch, as if getting comfortable to hear a long dissertation that he already planned how to repudiate. His look of ultimate confidence had fully returned.

Alexandra stared at him, unmoving. She’d had such a great plan, devised over many years to take place over many years. This turn of events had surprised her, utterly. She hadn’t the slightest notion that Nicholas was ready to remove the Coffin from the Box, much less do it without consulting one of his partners in the Godhead. Relying on every single element of the Flaring discipline she’d ever learned, she ran through calculation after calculation in her mind, reaching out to multiple futures and branchings of those futures, analyzing the possibilities and their respective probabilities. She could still do this. Despite the enormous disruption, she could still do this.

“I need an answer, Alex. We need to move on this.”

As the arrogant bastard spoke the words, she continued to look at him without looking, her mind expanded to the very reaches of her ability. Her great, magnificent ability. And then, like a thousand gears of a giant machine rotating, grinding into action, it all fit together.

“Okay,” she said.

After that, she went to her room without another word, shutting the door behind her. Eventually, he left.