The boy hesitates.
“What if guards stop us?”
Russ hands him a sidearm magazine.
Cold.
Steady.
“Then you protect your people.”
Your people.
The words visibly hit the kid.
Not subjects.
Not assets.
Not units.
People.
Human beings.
The teenage girl swallows hard.
Then nods once.
Resolved now.
Choice made.
“We can do it.”
Hannah’s eyes shine with emotion she’s trying hard not to show.
Because she understands exactly how huge this moment is.
These children are choosing who they become.
Not Wu.
Not Ascension.
Them.
Clay. Focus.
We still have a psychopath to kill.
Gabriel pulls up the final sector map.
“The reactor and command center are directly below us.”
Russ checks his rifle.
“Then we finish this.”
