Marco went pale. He didn't say another word as the guard led him away.
The drive back in Tyler’s car to the safe house was silent. I sat in the back seat, watching the city give way to farmland, trying to process what we'd learned. I caught my reflection in the car window—hair faded, the purple now too dull for my liking. I'd stopped dyeing it at the same time I'd killed the violet underlights on my Kawasaki. Making myself smaller. Harder to identify. Harder to find.
I hated it. Hated that they'd taken even this from me—this small, stupid piece of who I was.
When this is over, I promised myself.When Chen is gone. I'm bringing it all back.
Forty miles north. A farm. Thirty-seven people, waiting for rescue—or death, if Chen made good on her threat. "We hit it tonight." Axel's voice broke the silence. "Don't give her time to move them."
"Agreed." Tyler nodded, eyes fixed on the road. "But we need to be smart. Chen might be expecting us. She'll have people there."
"Then we bring everyone. Full assault, like the compound."
"With half our guys wounded and Tank still limping?" Tyler shook his head. "We need a different approach."
"What are you thinking?"
Tyler was quiet for a moment. Then: "Let me make some calls. I might be able to get backup—real backup. Agents I trust, ones Chen hasn't gotten to."
"You trust anyone in the Bureau after all this?"
"A few." His jaw tightened. "My old partner, for one. She's been suspicious of Chen for years but could never prove anything. If I bring her the evidence we have..."
"You'd be exposing yourself. Admitting you went undercover without authorization."
"I know." Tyler glanced at me in the rearview mirror. "But some things are worth the risk."
I thought about the girl in the cage. About Ana's bird-bone fingers. About thirty-seven people whose lives depended on what we did next.
"Make the calls," I said. "Whatever it takes."
Evening fell soft and golden over the farmhouse.
The survivors were settled in the barn, watched over by Maria and a rotating guard of Phoenix members. Doctors had treated the worst of the injuries. Tomorrow, they'd start figuring out how to get everyone home—the ones who still had homes to go to.
I found Axel on the porch, staring at the sunset. "Hey." I settled beside him on the worn wooden steps. "Tyler's inside, coordinating with his partner. They're putting together a team for tonight."
"I know." He didn't look at me. "Hawk's briefing the men now."
"You should be in there."
"Probably." A pause. "But I needed a minute. To breathe."
I understood. The last forty-eight hours had been a relentless assault—violence, horror, impossible choices. Even soldiers needed moments of peace.
We sat in silence, watching the sky turn pink and orange and gold. The air smelled like cut grass and distant rain. For just a moment, it was almost possible to forget what waited for us.
"I killed a man," I said quietly. "Slash. I slit his throat with his own knife."
"I know."
"I thought I'd feel something. Guilt, maybe. Horror at what I'd become." I looked down at my hands—clean now, but I could still feel the phantom weight of blood. "Instead, I just felt... satisfied. Like I'd corrected something wrong in the world."
"That's not a bad thing, Kai."
"Isn't it?" I turned to face him. "I'm a nurse. I'm supposed to save lives, not take them."
"You saved twenty-three lives. More, if we count everyone Slash would have hurt if he'd walked away." Axel finally met my eyes, and I saw understanding there. Compassion. "The world isn't clean. Sometimes protecting the innocent means destroying the guilty."
