She laughs once, sharp. “Sure, boss.”
Then she adds, too casually, “Send me the packet metadata.”
I narrow my eyes even though she can’t see it. “No.”
“Lonari,” she whines, and the sound is half sarcasm, half genuine frustration.
“No,” I repeat. “You’ll start decrypting it right now.”
Jordan’s voice turns innocent. “I would never.”
I can practically see her typing with one hand while she says it.
I sigh, long-suffering. “Jordan.”
She relents—kind of. “Fine. I won’t start until you get back.”
“Thank you,” I say, not believing her for a second.
We reach the Nun’s underlevels and transfer the agent into a secure holding room adjacent to my vault. The air down here is cool and clean, metallic, the smell of power systems and sealed doors. The building feels like a fortress in its bones.
As my team locks the restraint capsule into place, I glance toward the operations corridor where Jordan is waiting—because I can feel her there like a magnet.
She’s already too deep in the hunt.
And now we’ve rung the bell loud enough that High Lantern themselves might hear it.
The Nine struck exactly where I predicted.
Which means we predicted each other.
Now the question is who adapts faster.
I pull my hood down as I walk, tasting dust and steel and the faint sweetness of the Nun’s perfume filtering down through vents.
By the time I step into the operations room, Jordan is already standing over a terminal, eyes bright, posture tense, fingers hovering like they’re itching to tear the universe open.
“Don’t,” I say before she can speak.
Jordan looks at me, deadpan. “Hi.”
I point at her hands. “Don’t.”
She lifts both hands in surrender, exaggerated. “I’m not doing anything.”
“Liar,” I reply automatically.
She grins, all sharp edges. “Okay, fine. Iamdoing something.”
I exhale, half furious, half—against my will—admiring. “Of course you are.”
Jordan leans closer, voice low. “Lonari… this packet is keyed to High Lantern. If we crack it, we don’t just get a name. We get a path.”
“I know,” I say.
“And we don’t have time,” she adds. “Because the moment that agent doesn’t report back, they’ll realize the trap snapped.”
I stare at her, feel the weight of it settle in my chest.
