“We’re alive,” I whisper.
“For now.”
He walks away from the screen, pacing again, but slower. Less fire in it now. Just coals.
“They’ll come eventually,” he says. “They’ll find a way.”
“Maybe,” I say, rising to meet him. “But maybe we’ll be long gone.”
He turns to face me. There’s exhaustion in every line of his face. But something else too—something I hadn’t seen before. Acceptance. Not surrender. Not even peace. Just... stillness.
“You really believe that?” he asks.
“I believe we’ve earned a shot.”
He nods. “Where do we go?”
“Someplace without comm towers,” I say. “No checkpoints. No questions.”
“And after that?”
I smile. “I want a window. Just one. With sunlight.”
Roja studies me a long moment. Then he smiles too—barely, but it’s there.
“Okay,” he says.
Not a concession. A promise.
The room smellslike dust and old circuits—like the inside of a forgotten archive, scrubbed down just enough to pass for “official.”
I sit stiff-backed in one of three narrow chairs, metal legs scraping concrete like they’re trying to scratch through the nerves in my spine. The walls are blank. Off-white. Flat. The kind of sterile where even the silence hums.
Roja sits beside me, arms crossed, his boot bouncing with a rhythm just shy of panic. His eyes sweep the room like he’s already mapped a dozen exits.
The tribunal file their way in without ceremony—three of them, Coalition badges stitched into their collars, faces carved from stone. One glances at the camera mounted on the far wall. The red light blinks on.
“State your name,” one says.
I swallow hard. “Kelsea Rix.”
The words come out steadier than I expect.
“Occupation?”
“Registered Companion,” I say. “Formerly.”
“Prior to that?”
I blink. “Logistics consultant. Civilian contractor. Displacement sectors.”
“Be specific.”
My throat goes tight. I glance sideways. Roja isn’t looking at me, but his hand slides just enough to brush my thigh, a silent nudge.
I draw a breath. “Escort work,” I say. “Contractual companionship services in Coalition zones. No breaches.”
“Your relationship with the co-witness?”
