“He has a future,” she said.

She stood up, smoothing the front of her dark sweater.

“The transport will take you to the federal facility in the morning,” she said. “You have tonight to settle your affairs.”

“I have no affairs to settle,” I said.

“Then you should get some sleep,” she said.

She walked to the door, her boots quiet on the floor.

Before she left, she turned back to look at me one last time.

“You were always polite to the staff,” she said. “Most men in your position do not even see us.”

“My mother was a maid, Elena,” I said. “I know how hard it is to clean up other people’s messes.”

She nodded once, a gesture of quiet respect, and then she was gone.

I sat in the room for a long time, watching the gray light of the morning slowly turn to white.

The rain had stopped, leaving only the damp smell of the coast drifting through the building’s vents.

I was an old man in a cold room, with nothing but my coat and my memories.

But as I looked at the empty chair where Marcus had sat, I knew the legacy was not completely dead.

It was just starting over somewhere else, far away from the rain and the blood of this city.

I closed my eyes and listened to the distant hum of the morning traffic beginning to build on the streets below.