Captain Nera leans forward, eyes sharp. “You mean how you stop dragging us into your personal war.”
I don’t blink. “I mean how we stop being a pipeline for someone else’s agenda.”
Murmurs ripple around the room.
Jasker’s chair sits empty. It’s a visible absence. A warning with upholstery.
Captain Orin—newer, younger, hungry—tilts his head. “We heard you stripped Jasker.”
“I did,” I say.
“And you didn’t kill him,” Orin pushes, a little incredulous. “That’s… unusual.”
I smile faintly. “Death is easy. I’m not doing easy anymore.”
Nera’s mouth tightens. “We can’t pause. The Nine hits us, we hit back. That’s how this works.”
“That’s how it’s worked,” I correct. “Which is why they’re comfortable.”
I let the silence stretch. Let them sit in it.
Then I say the words that make half of them stiffen.
“Strategic pivot.”
A captain on the far end snorts. “We’re criminals, Lonari. Not?—”
“Not stupid,” I cut in. “Don’t insult us.”
I tap the table once. “Kaijen operations pause expansion. No new territory pushes. No flashy grabs. No ego raids. We focus on counterintelligence and civilian shielding.”
A murmur. Disbelief. Offense.
Orin’s eyebrows jump. “Civilian shielding?”
“Yes,” I say.
He scoffs. “Since when do we?—”
“Since we decided we don’t win by becoming monsters for the Nine to point at,” I snap, and my voice sharpens like a blade. “Since we decided we don’t let innocents die because we’re too proud to adjust.”
Nera’s eyes narrow. “This is because of the human.”
I feel heat crawl up my spine.
“Say her name,” I reply, voice dangerously calm.
Nera’s jaw tightens. “Jordan.”
“Good,” I say. “Now hear me: Jordan isn’t the reason the Nine attacked us. Jordan is the reason we can see the attack for what it is.”
Orin leans back, skeptical. “And what is it?”
I gesture toward the projection Senn throws into the air—routes, accounts, supply lines, the shadowy map of our ecosystem.
“It’s infiltration,” I say. “It’s procurement manipulation. It’s a leash.”
I point at a cluster of routes highlighted in red. “These supply channels. Nine relies on them. They like to outsource the dirty work—logistics, distribution, laundering.”
