What steadied me was a thing I had learned long before: that you are never as alone as you feel when you are outnumbered, provided you have prepared.

The tenants had left.

But I had not walked into that house relying on the tenants.

I had walked in relying on a small device I had already placed in the basement, on a decade of training, and on the one advantage that never leaves you no matter how outnumbered you are, which is knowing something your opponents do not know that you know.

They thought they had won because they had counted the people in the room and found me alone.