"But if she says go," he says. "I go."
"Crull."
Crull has not moved from the doorway. His amber eyes have been on Fen the entire time.
"Fen," Crull says. "Fen is not stable enough for a building raid. He just held the line this morning. He held once. If he goes back through a Syndicate door with Syndicate scent on it, I do not know what he does. I do not want to find out today."
He looks at Fen.
Fen looks back at him.
"Stay," Crull says to Fen. "I stay with you. Pack goes. We hold."
Fen's jaw works.
He says it.
"No."
The room goes still.
"No," Fen says again. His voice is rough but it is clear. He is making his mouth do what his mouth is supposed to do. "Go."
He looks at me. The not-yet-thread is full.
Crull's amber eyes hold his brother's. The rumble in his chest changes register. The room watches the two of them have a conversation neither of them has the words for, and Crull is the one who breaks first.
"Okay," Crull says. "Okay, brother. We go."
The bond floods. The brothers' line resonates off my own chest like a bell struck twice. I press my palm flat to the patch.
"Thaw."
He puts his hand on the back of my neck.
"Yes."
"I want to know what you think before I tell you what I want."
His thumb moves at the base of my skull.
"I think the raid is a good operation and a bad week to run it," he says. Slowly. "Your body is doing something none of us has language for. You are experiencing symptoms we do not hve a name for. The Syndicate is allocating resources to find you specifically. The smart move is to spend time here, let your body settle, and then decide whether to hit Theresa next week."
"That is the alpha answer."
Thaw nods.
"And the other answer?"
He is quiet.
"The other answer is that there are other names on the registry, and the Syndicate is going to start acquiring them in the next thirty days because they have just lost their primary assetand they need new candidates fast, and every day we wait is a day one of those women is taken."
I close my eyes.
That is the part Reyes did not say. That is the part I have been not letting myself think about since the campground.
For weeks the only thing my body has been making is tough choices. Every choice I have made since February has been a defensive one — a moving away, a getting out. None of us has ever chosen toward the Syndicate. Not once. I have never hadtowardas a direction available to me.
