I don’t look away from the incoming channel.
“Yeah,” I say quietly.
Then I lift my chin.
“Let them talk.”
The world is still watching.
And this time, so am I.
CHAPTER 38
LONARI
The executive override channel doesn’t flicker.
It doesn’t stutter.
It doesn’t apologize.
It opens like it owns the air.
On the main hearing display, the High Command watermark stabilizes—clean, official, polished in that way institutions polish their lies. The blast in the Industrial Ring is still echoing through Gur, but the stream holds. Jordan’s architecture refuses to die. Millions are still watching.
And now High Command is too.
My comm vibrates against my wrist—private channel, encrypted, layered through Kaijen scramblers and Jordan’s mirrored relays.
Incoming: GENERAL DOWRON
Of course.
I step half a pace away from the main camera, not hiding, just angling for clarity.
“Put it through,” I say.
Jordan hears the name in my posture before I speak it. Her eyes flick toward me, sharp and furious and electric.
The channel opens in my ear.
Dowron doesn’t waste time.
“You’ve escalated this past containment,” he says.
His voice is controlled, military calm stretched thin over something raw.
“You tried to kill our witness on a live feed,” I reply evenly. “Containment ended a while ago.”
Silence on his end. Not denial.
Silence.
Then:
“That shot was not authorized by me.”
I believe him.
