"Someone was," Rush says evenly, composed and neutral, revealing nothing. Arista lashes her tail once in apparent savage satisfaction, leaping nimbly off the chair to weave herself around one of his ankles.

"The objective was chaos," Arista repeats. "And we achieved our objective. We had limited time and resources, and a limited window to execute." Settling down languorously in the sand, she adds with a pointed, prim twist to her voice, "I think we did very well, considering."