JULIAN 

Outside, somewhere beyond the insulated walls, the city made its sounds.

I set down my water glass. "She's fine."

"Good." Thomas took a small sip of wine, he had ordered a bottle and poured me a glass I had not touched, and the glass sat between us with the specific and particular quality of an untouched thing that both of us were aware of. "I imagine she is. She strikes me as resilient." He paused, and the pause had the specific and deliberate quality of a man letting a word settle. "That whole family, actually. Resilience was always a Vasquez trait, even when it cost them." Another pause. "It...