"My commentary how you still could have been shot was exactly what I mean - I wasn't there to protect you. I could not have protected you. It would have been futile - it was the strategic position. Yes, if the opportunity presented itself, I would have preferred to both neutralize the threat and keep you alive. But you chose your risk, there. I chose the safer - safest - place in the apartment."

He didn't even realize that the admission was still there. Not so much of guilt - he hadn't moved to cover her weakness - but of being invested in her survival.

He watched her, after the words had all sunk in. "My words are truth. You are free to see what I do, if you can observe it without endangering my job, whenever I strike. There's little else I can do to warn you." And, with the same even tone. "Ants have no choice. They do what their queen requires to survive and propagate." One finger pointed at her, without his hand stirring from his knee. "You're the one who has choice. I... am learning. To avoid the choices that were made for me."