"Nothing. Just thinking about how Lucas asked why I look at you a certain way."
My face burns. "He asked you that?"
"He asked Khalid. I overheard." Stryker's mouth quirks slightly. "Kid's more observant than I gave him credit for."
"What did Khalid tell him?"
"That some questions are better asked directly."
Every nerve in my body responds to the challenge in his voice. We're too close, the air between us thick with years of wanting and denying and pretending neither of us still feels this pull.
"Mr. Stryker!" Lucas calls again. "Can you show me how to do the thing you did with Mercer? The one where you flipped him?"
Stryker stands immediately, and whatever fragile connection we'd built shatters. "Not today, buddy. That's advanced stuff."
"But I want to learn!"
"When you're older. Right now, you focus on helping Khalid with Odin."
Lucas pouts but returns to the dog tricks, mollified by Khalid's promise to teach him something new.
Stryker turns back to me. "I should help Kane with the debrief."
"Right. Of course." I stand as well, needing the distance before I do something stupid like touch him. "I'll stay here with Lucas."
"Rachel." My name on his lips stops me before I can walk away. "We should talk. Really talk. About everything."
"I know." Meeting his eyes, seeing the truth there. "But not here. Not now."
"Tonight. After Lucas goes to sleep."
"Okay."
He heads toward where Kane waits, and I'm left standing in the gym trying to remember how to breathe normally.
Lucas plays with Khalid and Odin for a while longer before exhaustion catches up with him. We head back to our quarters, and he crashes on his bed with Ghost tucked under his arm. Sleep takes him almost immediately, worn out from a morning of excitement.
I should stay. Should read or rest or do something productive while Lucas sleeps. Instead, restlessness drives me into the corridors. I need to move, need to feel like I have some control even if it's just wandering Echo Base's predetermined paths.
The familiar route between residential and communal areas should feel safe by now. I've walked it dozens of times since we arrived. But today, something shifts. Maybe it's the conversation with Colton still replaying in my head. Maybe it's the weight of Lucas's questions about whether we'll ever go home. Maybe it's just living inside this mountain finally catching up.
The panic starts small. A tightness in my chest. Awareness of how much rock sits above my head.
Then it crescendos.
Steel corridors morph into stucco walls. Overhead lights become sunlight streaming through windows I can't reach. The hum of ventilation becomes armed guards talking in Spanish outside locked doors.
Mateo's compound. I'm back there, and there's no way out, and Lucas is somewhere crying and I can't reach him because the doors are locked and?—
My back hits the corridor wall. I slide down, pulling my knees to my chest, trying to remember the breathing exercises. Four counts in. Hold. Four counts out.
It's not working. The steel presses closer and the air keeps thinning and I'm going to die here, trapped inside this mountain while the Committee hunts my son and?—
"Rachel." Colton's voice cuts through the panic. "Rachel, look at me."
He's crouched in front of me, hands visible, eyes locked on mine.
"You're in Echo Base," he says steadily. "You're safe. Lucas is asleep in your quarters. The Committee can't reach you here."
