The dog lowered her head, spun around, and barked once into the dark crevice at the crook of the underpass.

A young man stepped forward into the light and the dog ran to him and turned around and sat at his master’s feet, facing Archie.

“We’re not leaving,” the man said.

He looked to be in his twenties, Latino, clean-shaven, dressed in jeans and cowboy boots and a dirty denim jacket buttoned up to the neck. He was short, but he held himself with an easy authority. He was used to being in charge.

“You must be Nick,” Archie said.

The dog looked up at the man, thumped her tail against the pavement, and whined. Any hint of aggression had vanished. He rubbed her head. “She’s not usually like that,” he said. “The weather has her freaked out.”

Heil stepped forward, and Archie caught a flash of his gun, still drawn, held against his leg. Archie could hear Heil breathing, short and fast.

“You can put your weapon away,” Archie said to Heil. “The dog’s okay now, right, Nick?”

“Yeah,” Nick said.

Heil hesitated, his eyes still fixed on the dog.

“Put your gun away,” Archie repeated calmly. He didn’t look at Heil. He kept his focus on the man and the dog. No sudden movements. Calm and casual. Dog attack. Man with a gun. The rules for de-escalation were pretty much the same.

A minute ticked by. Archie counted. A minute, with a pit bull and a gun, is a very long time.

Then, after a slow glance around, as if he were pocketing something he’d shoplifted, Heil holstered his weapon.

Archie released the breath he’d been holding.

Nick hadn’t flinched. If he’d had any idea his dog had almost gotten shot, he didn’t show it.

“What are you doing here?” Archie asked him.

“We live here,” he answered, the obvious implication being: What are you doing here?

“Maybe you haven’t heard the news,” Heil said, “but the river is flooding. That seawall they’re building over there? That may keep the west side dry. But you don’t see them building a seawall over here, do you?”

It was a fair point.

“I said we’re not leaving.” Nick’s voice was weighty with determination, but under that Archie could detect a thread of anxiety. “Now, maybe you guys don’t like to sleep, but we do. It’s been a long day. So why don’t you just move on, okay?”

“How many of you are there?” Archie asked.

Nick looked back into the darkness from which he’d come. “It’s okay,” he said.