I’d been checking the perimeter sensors when the encryption cracked, dumping fragments of enemy chatter into my earpiece. Most of it was garbage, routine check-ins and supply requests. But one transmission came through clear.
“...additional units en route. Dawn arrival. Full cleanse authorized. No survivors.”
I pulled the earpiece out. Set it on the counter. Stared at it like it might change what I’d heard.
It didn’t.
“Anhara?” Kallum’s voice from the doorway. He’d been resting, following orders for once, but he must have heard me stop moving.
“More of them. Arriving at dawn.” I turned to face him. “Full cleanse authorized. They’re not trying to capture us anymore. They’re trying to erase us.”
He processed this the way he processed everything. Silent. Still. Only his eyes moving, calculating angles I couldn’t see.
“Against two,” he said.
“Two and a pig.”
He didn’t smile. Neither did I.
The math had finally become impossible. We could hold out against a squad, maybe. Against a platoon, with luck and every trap on the farm. But a full assault force with authorization to burn everything?
No. Not even Torek could have held that line.
“The vault,” I said.
“What about it?”
“We start the sequence tonight. If we time it right, we can extract the key before they arrive.” I was talking fast now, plans forming as I spoke. “The sequence takes six hours. If we start at midnight, we finish at dawn. We grab it and run while they’re still organizing their assault.”
“The energy signature...”
“Doesn’t matter. They’ve already found us.”
“Why not now?”
“Because once we start, we're locked in. Fifty meters apart, no leaving our stations for six hours. We need time to fortify both positions first.” I looked at his side, where blood had seeped through the bandage again. “And you need rest before you can hold that ridge all night.”
He didn't argue. That told me how much the wound was costing him.
“And if they attack during the sequence?”
“Then we fight while we run it. The controls are at two locations. You at the processing station on the ridge, me in the farmhouse basement. We coordinate by comm.”
He crossed the room. Stood in front of me. His hand found my arm, steadying.
“Explain the system,” he said.
I took a breath. This was the part I’d been dreading. The part where I told him we’d have to be apart, when all I wanted was to never let him out of my sight.
“Torek designed it as a failsafe,” I said. “The vault holds the fifth key. The one he was protecting. The one your team has been hunting.” I watched his face, but he already knew this. He’d known since he arrived. “He gave up everything to keep it hidden. Built this whole system so no one person could access it alone.”
“A split-key system.”
“Exactly. The processing station on the ridge controls the main pressure. The farmhouse basement controls the flow regulators. Both have to be operated simultaneously, in perfect coordination, or the whole thing seals permanently and destroys what’s inside.”
“And we can’t just bring both controls to one location?”
“No. The system monitors the distance between operators. If it senses we’re within fifty meters of each other during the sequence, it aborts.” I met his eyes. “We have to be apart. For six hours. While thirty-two people try to kill us.”
