Page 194 of Somno Slave

“Based on what?” I push forward. “Behavioural instability? Circumstantial profiling? You still don’t have a full confession.”

Sean stops typing. The silence that follows feels careful. Peter studies me for a second too long before answering.

Peter watches me carefully now. “Harris has already authorised it.”

“I don’t care.” The sharpness of it surprises even me. “He is not psychologically stable enough for execution.”

“You already cleared competency.”

My body stills. “No, I didn’t.”

But even saying it now sounds weak.

Peter reaches across the desk without another word and turns one of the folders toward me.

“Yes,” he says quietly. “You did.”

I stare at it without touching it at first. My eyes catch the bottom page.

Psychiatric Competency Recommendation.

My signature sits beneath it in black ink, small, jagged lines.

The room tilts slightly.

“No.” I gasp.

I snatch the paperwork toward myself hard enough that several pages slide loose across the desk. My hands shake violently as I flip through them.

Assessment summaries.

Behavioural evaluations.

Risk analysis.

But there it is again.

Rheda Ainsley.

Approved.

My throat tightens so badly I can barely breathe around it.

“No, this isn’t—”

But it is. I recognise every stroke. The pressure marks beneath the letters. The slight drag beneath the final line of my surname whenever I’m tired.

My handwriting. My signature. Mine.

Peter’s voice reaches me carefully through the rushing in my ears. “You signed the competency recommendation a week ago.”

My fingers tighten harder around the paper. “I thought it was preliminary.”

“It was,” Peter says. “Until the board reviewed the final reports this morning.”

I stare back down at the signatures again.

My signatures.