"It's all about giving yourself the best chance."
He puts his hand on the kid's shoulder. The scrawny bedroom is dark, the linen none too fresh. Sounds of a raucous drinking game come from the other room in this apartment at the top of a rundown Brooklyn brownstone. There is a full moon outside and its light stripes the rough misery of this room.
The four year old turns away and stares at the insides of her eyelids.
"You're too young to know what's best, yet," he says. "This time, I'm giving you the chance. From now on, I won't be around. You'll have to start finding those chances on your own."
He waits, watching the small body hunched up under the covers. Her hair still smells of smoke. It is on him, too - his suit is ruined.
"I don't like these people," she mumbles through the comforter.
"I didn't bring you here to make friends. Learn from them. Become them. And forget me."
"I don't wanna forget you!"
The child is in her voice but as she faces him at last, the anger and hurt in her eyes is beyond her years. She doesn't understand, but Red does. A war is coming. Power has shifted. There has been theft, and now revenge, and soon counter revenge unless Red thinks quickly.
He hopes her father's place is still burning. Pity he wasn't in it after what he did to Red. And now Red must get back, look loyal, and dodge the wrath which is crackling in the firmament
Red sighs. The kid is hidden here in this minor world, as safe as she can be, as unknown as she can be. "Forget me," he says and uncurls his gloved fist to show her a golden key, wrought in filigree like a queen's fanciful birdcage. As Elizabeth's eyes focus on the key, Red repeats, "Forget me."
She closes her eyes and sinks back down. He pauses, running his hand through his fair hair down to where it trails over his collar. Moonlight aches on his skin, clogs his lungs. He swallows a reflexive cough.
Droplets of light have sputtered all across her face, but the sizzle lasts less than a second before evaporating back up to the thousand junk orbits which are its origin. Red breathes out the last of the stuff in his lungs and turns to go.
The key he leaves on her pillow. By the time he reaches the tatty door of the thieves' rookery, she is asleep, and he knows he is gone from her mind forever.