“They’re not going to do anything.”
“No.”
Mia shook her head once. “You could have died.”
Shannon stared at the wall. “He wanted me scared. Not gone. Not yet.”
Mia swallowed. “What are you going to do?”
Shannon didn’t answer right away.
Across the bay, Krueger laughed at something another cadet said. It was an easy sound. Relaxed and untouched.
Shannon’s grip tightened on the cup. “I’m going to stop waiting for this to fix itself.”
Mia nodded. “Good.”
Later that night,Olivo stood alone near the edge of the field, staring up at the dark outline of the tower. He had crossed a line that could not be uncrossed. He had exposed himself. And it still had not been enough.
When Shannon approached, he didn’t turn. “They wrote it up as failure.”
“I know.”
“He did it on purpose.”
“I know.”
She stood beside him, close enough to feel the tension radiating off his frame. “This won’t stop.”
Olivo finally looked at her. “No,” he agreed. “It won’t.”
Silence settled between them. Then he spoke again, quieter this time. “If he realizes you’re building something he can’t control, he’ll move fast.”
Shannon’s voice was steady. “Then I’ll be ready.”
Olivo thought about her as he watched her walk back to her dorm. She’d run drills like nothing happened, like she hadn’t nearly died.
Like the harness hadn’t failed in the worst possible spot on the highest rope of the tower course. Like she hadn’t dangled in the air until someone caught her.
Until he did.
Dante stood alone at the edge of the field, arms crossed, jacket zipped. From this distance, she looked like the others. Same uniform. Same haircut. Same cadet frame built by stress and sleep deprivation.
But he could see the difference.
She landed harder. Got up faster. Said less. Every time she wiped out on the obstacle course, she reset without flinching.
Her boots were bleeding at the seams. Her bandaged wrists flexed stiffly when she climbed. And still, she didn’t ask for a break. That was what cracked him open. Not the bruises. Not the sabotage. Not even the slow institutional shrug around it.
It was her refusal to become smaller. She wasn’t trying to impress anyone. She wasn’t proving a point. She was surviving with something he hadn’t seen in a long time. Conviction.
She could have been a dozen other cadets. But she wasn’t. She saw Krueger. Heard him. Documented him. And still she kept showing up.
Even though no one believed her yet. Even though no one would help. Except him. He hated that he’d waited. That he hadn’t stepped in sooner. That she’d had to save herself at the tower, and only after that, he’d moved.
It should’ve been just another assignment. But now…. Now, if she went down, it wasn’t just about the mission. It wasn’t about Chase Security.
It wasn’t about Meagan McKenna or Mike Johnson. It was about her.
