“That means whatever they’re hiding isn’t small,” she continues. “And it’s not contained to one side.”
“No,” I agree. “It’s bigger than that.”
She nods slightly, more to herself than to me.
“So we don’t just expose it,” she says. “We hit it where it matters.”
I slow, turning slightly toward her.
“Yeah,” I say. “That’s the only play left.”
Her eyes flick up to mine.
“And you’ve got a plan,” she says.
It’s not a question.
“Yeah,” I admit.
“Of course you do,” she mutters. “Alright, let’s hear it.”
I lean back slightly against the wall, letting the weight settle into something controlled as I map it out.
“The only place this gets shut down clean is the IHC base,” I say. “That’s where the data routes converge, where command cycles information through before it gets filtered out.”
Her expression tightens immediately.
“You want to walk into the center of it,” she says.
“Yeah,” I reply. “Because everything we’ve seen points back there.”
“That’s not infiltration,” she says. “That’s suicide.”
“It’s controlled risk,” I counter.
She lets out a short, incredulous laugh.
“That’s what you’re calling it now?” she asks. “Because it sounds like you want to walk us straight into a kill zone.”
“It’s already a kill zone,” I reply, my voice steady. “The difference is, we go in on our terms instead of theirs.”
She studies me for a second.
“How?” she asks.
“We use the fact that they’re looking for us,” I say. “They’ve flagged us already, which means they’re expecting movement along the outer sectors, not internal access.”
“And you’re planning to come up inside the perimeter,” she says.
“Yeah,” I confirm. “Through maintenance access tied to the smuggling routes.”
Her eyes narrow slightly.
“You’ve done this before,” she says.
“Not exactly like this,” I reply. “But close enough.”
She shifts her weight, the movement careful, measured.
