Just a fraction longer.
Just a fraction more careful.
Tur walks with me openly now.
Not in the shadows.
Not at a distance.
Aligned.
Word spreads fast through Novaria’s underworld.
Fierson isn’t alone anymore.
The Nine take notice.
Syndicate calculus shifts.
I feel the weight of it settling into my bones like a new kind of gravity.
The cost is real.
The fear is real.
But so is the leverage.
We reach the mag-lift platform.
Tur finally exhales.
“That was… competent,” he admits.
“High praise from a man who kills people for a living.”
“I let four men live last night,” he mutters.
“Growth,” I say. “We love to see it.”
He almost smiles.
Almost.
“You were right,” he says quietly. “About not bargaining from hunger.”
“I know.”
We stand side by side as the lift arrives.
Neither of us looks away from what’s coming.
Neither of us pretends this isn’t about to get much worse.
CHAPTER 16
TUR
Alliance tracking protocols go live at full depth at 09:17 local.
