"Very."
Zane pulls up another file. A face fills the display.
Marcus Webb. I remember that face. Remember trusting it. He was forty when I knew him, brown hair going grey, eyes that looked tired even when he smiled. The kind of face that saidcompetent veteraninstead oftraitor.
I memorized every line of it in the hospital. Every angle. Every feature that might help me find him if the death certificate was lying.
It was lying.
"This was taken four days ago." Zane switches the image. Same face. Older. Harder. Different clothes, different station, same tired eyes. "Station Gamma-7. He's using a new identity, but facial recognition flagged him."
My heart is doing something it shouldn't. Racing. The spike of adrenaline that comes before violence or vindication.
Six years.
Six years of not knowing. Of suspecting. Of building files and running searches and finding nothing.
He's alive.
The man who sold us is alive.
"Where is he now?" My voice doesn't shake. Small victories.
"Unknown. He disappeared from Gamma-7 before we could move." Zane looks at me. At Dexter. "But we have his patterns. His contacts. His probable destinations."
"You want us to hunt him." Dexter's already calculating. I can see it in the way his marks pulse, the rhythm that means he's running scenarios. "Bring him in. Find out what he knows."
"I want you to find out why he's operating in Vex territory." Zane's pale eyes are cold. "And who he's working for now. If it's the Vex, we need to know their strategy. If it's someone else?—"
"Then we need to know who else wants us dead," I finish.
Talia shifts in her seat. "I can reach out to debtor networks. See if anyone's heard his name. Webb's new identity."
"Do it." Zane stands. "You have forty-eight hours to put together an operations plan. After that, you deploy."
He leaves. Talia follows, but she pauses at the door. Looks back at me.
Her expression says what her mouth doesn't:Are you okay with this?
I nod once.
She goes.
The door closes.
I'm alone with Dexter again.
"We should—" he starts.
"Don't." I stand. Start gathering my files, the physical copies I keep because digital can be hacked and I trust myhands more than any system. "Don't try to talk about it. Don't try to explain. Don't try to make this easier."
"I wasn't going to."
"Good."
I move toward the door. He's faster. Steps into my path. Not blocking. Just... there. Close enough that I can see the exact shade of his eyes, the electric blue that used to mean something before it meantunable to retrieve.
"Astra." My name again. He says it like it matters. "I need you to understand something."
