Captain.

Whatever.” He tried for reasonable, tried for the tone he used on nervous investors.

“Niko was my brother-in-law.

This house is part of his estate, which means it passes to the surviving family, and we are the surviving family, and we’re setting up in the back bedroom today, so with respect, you don’t get to roll a convoy up here and —” He didn’t finish, because that was when the second car arrived.

It came up behind the military vehicles, a plain black sedan with government plates, and it parked, and a tall gray-haired man got out in a good dark suit with a thick leather portfolio under one arm, and I watched my father’s face do something I had never seen it do in thirty-four years.

It went white.