Nobody talks much.
The tension inside the vehicle feels razor sharp now.
Final-mission sharp.
The kind soldiers feel before breaching a target they may not walk out of.
My overlap episodes haven’t stopped.
Memories still flicker unexpectedly beneath the surface of everything.
A song.
A hallway.
A child’s face.
But now something else is happening too.
The memories are connecting.
Not random fragments anymore.
Structure.
Purpose.
And that terrifies me more than the flashes themselves.
Clay notices me staring blankly at the rain-covered city outside.
“You with me?”
I blink slowly.
“Trying.”
His hand brushes quietly against mine between the seats.
Grounding.
Always grounding.
The contact steadies me instantly.
Dangerous how much it steadies me.
Gabriel suddenly looks up from the tablet in his hands.
“Facility schematics confirmed.”
Russ glances toward him.
“How bad?”
Gabriel gives a humorless laugh.
“Very.”
