“No,” he fires back, pushing off the wall to close the distance between us. “You’re still running the numbers like this is a controlled op.”
I turn on him, heat flaring sharp and immediate. “Because panic helps?”
“Because you’re planning for one of us to not make it,” he shoots back, voice low but cutting.
The words hit harder than the impact did.
Pally glances between us, tense. “Guys—maybe not the time?—”
“Stay out of it,” we both snap, in perfect, irritating unison.
Another clang echoes closer this time. Heavier. Closer.
I force my focus forward. “We move. Now.”
I start again, faster, forcing my body to adjust to the skewed gravity. Every step feels off, like walking through a dream where the floor won’t stay where it should.
Dux falls into step beside me this time instead of behind, matching my pace. I can feel him there without looking—steady, relentless.
“You didn’t answer me,” he says.
“I don’t have time to indulge your?—”
“Your plan,” he interrupts, sharper now. “What’s the contingency?”
“There is no?—”
“Don’t,” he snaps, grabbing my arm again, stopping me dead in the corridor. “Don’t lie to me, Roma.”
The use of my name—just my name, stripped of everything else—lands different.
I yank my arm back. “Let go.”
“Not until you tell me.”
Behind us, metal shrieks again. Something slams into the far end of the corridor we just left, the sound reverberating through the structure like a heartbeat gone wrong.
Pally flinches. “We really, really don’t have time for this.”
“I know,” I say.
“Then say it,” Dux presses, stepping into my space, forcing me to meet his gaze. “What’s the plan if it comes down to it?”
The answer is already there. It’s always been there.
Sacrifice the most expendable asset to ensure mission success.
I know how to calculate that. I’ve always known.
His eyes search mine, like he can see the equation forming, like he already knows the outcome and hates me for it.
“Roma.”
I exhale slowly, the air tasting like burnt metal. “If structural collapse accelerates, or if Reaper containment becomes untenable, I create a diversion.”
Pally’s expression drops. “A diversion meaning?—”
“Meaning I draw them away,” I say flatly. “You and Dux continue to the escape vector.”
