Silence crashes through the corridor.
Brief.
Then Wu’s voice calmly resumes through another speaker farther ahead.
“You always were emotional, Vincent.”
Every muscle in Clay’s body tightens beside me.
Wrong move.
Very wrong move.
Wu keeps talking.
“But emotional attachment clouds judgment.”
A beat.
“Hannah knows this already.”
I stop walking.
Because suddenly—
I remember.
A training room.
Cold white lights.
Wu standing beside a younger version of me.
Maybe fifteen.
“You will never bond emotionally,” he said calmly.
“Attachment creates weakness.”
A pause.
“And weakness destroys operational clarity.”
Oh my God.
The reason they isolated children wasn’t only obedience.
It was to prevent love.
Connection.
Loyalty outside Sentinel.
That’s why Wu’s obsessed with Clay.
Because Clay shattered something fundamental in their conditioning.
Clay notices my expression immediately.
