The conversation had gone in Simon's favour.
The Voice had not openly accepted his terms, but she had allowed him to keep the Murmur Bone and told him to name his price when she contacted him again.
That was enough to preserve their connection.
It was not enough to make Simon trust her.
The Voice would continue looking for his identity, testing his limits, and searching for a method to either control or dispose of him. Simon intended to do the same to her.
He returned the Murmur Bone to his spatial ring, then his fingers stopped.
There was something they had not discussed.
His payment for the mission he had already completed.
The Voice had promised to pay him when she gave him the task. Her anger over the Fifth Needle and the dead rebels had allowed the conversation to move toward their future arrangement without settling the current debt.
Perhaps she genuinely forgot.
Perhaps she wanted to see whether Simon would forget.
It did not matter.
