“How heavily defended?”
Gabriel’s expression darkens.
“Very.”
Helpful.
Lucas leans against the checkpoint barrier, pale from blood loss but still standing through pure stubbornness.
“We split teams.”
“No,” I say immediately.
Too fast.
Too sharp.
Everyone looks at me.
Don’t care.
Not after what we just saw.
Not after those kids.
Not after Hannah shaking beside me trying to hold herself together while still protecting everyone else.
We are not separating her in this place.
Gabriel notices instantly.
“This isn’t personal, Vincent.”
I step toward him slowly.
“It became personal the second I saw barcode tattoos on children.”
Nobody argues with that.
Because they all feel it now too.
This stopped being an operation the moment we realized Ascension was still active.
Russ finally steps between us.
“Focus.”
He points toward the map.
“We need three things:
One, secure the children.
Two,stop theevacuation.
Three, kill Wu.”
Simple.
