“You okay?”
No.
Not even remotely.
But I look at him anyway.
Strong hands.
Steady eyes.
The man who dove into a freezing Romanian river without hesitation to save me.
The man Wu wants to break.
Absolutely not.
“I’m ready.”
His gaze searches mine for one long second.
Then he nods once.
Believes me.
That trust does something dangerous to my chest.
Russ parks behind a collapsed warehouse overlooking the communications facility.
Weapons load around me.
Body armor adjusted.
Final checks.
The mood inside the SUV shifts from tension into pure operational focus.
Predators preparing to strike.
Gabriel studies the bunker schematics one final time.
“There’s a central server core beneath Level Four.”
He looks at me.
“If Ascension data exists anywhere, it’ll be there.”
“And Wu?” Mason asks through comms.
Gabriel’s expression goes cold.
“Command level beneath the server core.”
Russ chambers a round.
“So we cut our way down.”
Simple.
