“Bastardized military tech set up by whoever messed around in here, explosion.”
“How much longer?” I asked, already scanning the room, the exits, the angles, and the time.
“One minute thirty to download once I engage,” he said. “Failsafe triggers at three.”
“Intel is not as important as your life,” I said. “Let’s go.”
“I’m not leaving. This intel only exists here—we have to do thisnow. You can leave.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“Leon—”
“No.”
We didn’t speak after that. He pressed the download, the countdown running in my head as loud as anything on the screens while he worked, and I held the door, measuring seconds in breath and distance, until the progress bar hit complete and he yanked the drive free and we moved.
Fast.
No stealth left.
We ran.
Along the corridor, around the corner, stairs ahead, leaping bodies, and I could imagine the building shifting around us, systems cycling, something deep in the structure waking up, and I pushed him ahead of me, one hand at his back, keeping him focused on the exit, putting myself between him and any danger.
We hit the main floor as the first alarm tore through the place, harsh and absolute, and I didn’t break stride, driving him toward the door, toward air, toward anything that wasn’t this.
“Go,” I said.
He didn’t argue.
We cleared the threshold as the countdown hit zero in my head and the world behind us detonated, the force of it slamming into us like a wall, heat and pressure and sound collapsing into one violent moment, and I reacted without thinking, grabbing him and throwing him forward, using everything I had to get him clear as the blast chased us out into the night.
We hit the ground hard, me over him, arms around him, taking the impact, shielding, absorbing, the shockwave rolling over us as debris rained down and the building behind us tore itself apart.
I didn’t try to turn until the pressure eased and the pain in my back was manageable.
Didn’t let go until I was sure he was breathing.
Then I dragged air into my lungs.
He was alive.
My job was done.
TWENTY-SEVEN
Caleb
I came back in fragments,the world reduced to noise and pressure and the crushing weight of something over me that for one blind second felt like more debris, more collapse, until my lungs dragged in a breath that hurt, and I realized it was Novak, draped over me, shielding me, his body taking the impact. I twisted under him, disoriented, ears ringing, vision swimming as I tried to get my hands under him to push him off, panic hitting hard and fast when I realized he was immobile.
“Novak?” My voice came out rough and broken, and I pushed harder, adrenaline cutting through the fog. “Novak—Leon!” Fear spiked sharp in my chest, until hands were suddenly there, pulling at him, voices cutting through the ringing as Zach and Kai dropped beside us, hauling him up and off me with force. I rolled onto my side, dragging air in, my whole body shaking as I tracked Novak, needing to see him upright, needing to see him alive.
He was.
Wobbly on his feet, breathing shallow, eyes not quite focused, but standing, and that was enough to get me moving as I pushed myself up and closed the distance, sliding a handunder his side to steady him, ignoring the shredded condition of his jacket and whatever damage sat underneath it because there wasn’t time for me to do fuck about it now.
“We need to move before this gets attention,” Zach said, pushing us back into motion. “You okay to roll?”
