It wasn't overt danger. It was visibility. Photos. Video.
Irrevocable visibility.
I hyperventilated and followed Griffin's suggestion. I couldn't make it to four.
He turned from the front passenger seat. "Someone changed the exit routing without authorization. If we'd gone that route, there would have been no security perimeter. Only thousands of people with no barriers between you and their cameras."
Another incident.
With Vancouver, Portland, and the truss, it was now four. Each one plausible alone.
Together they formed a pattern, and I was at the center.
***
Back in my hotel room, I leaned against the door the moment it closed, breathing.
My phone buzzed.
Kang:Final briefing tomorrow 0800. Griffin's placement will be decided.
Tomorrow. Kang would announce his decision.
Either Griffin stayed, and everyone blamed the next incident on his compromised judgment, or Griffin left, and I'd lose the only person who saw Yoon-jae in addition to Rune.
I didn't know which outcome scared me more.
I pulled out my phone.
Rune:I need you.
Thirty seconds passed.
Griffin:On my way.
I sat on the edge of the bed, phone face down on the nightstand.
Someone will die.
The thought arrived with clarity, certainty.
Someone would die because the machinery built around me kept breaking. And when they did, it would be my fault for existing inside the system and wanting things I wasn't allowed to want.
Heat crawled up my neck.
I stood and walked to the window. Pressed my hand against the glass. It was solid. Real.
A knock.
Then Griffin's voice, low: "It's me."
I opened the door.
He stepped inside, reading my face and my posture. He closed the door and crossed the room in four strides.
"Breathe," he said. "Look at me."
I tried, but my vision kept blurring.
