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She stared at him. He could see her running the calculation: what she would lose, what she could keep, where the line fell between exposure and survival.
“I don’t want them to know… that he attacked me.”
“Sloane…”
She shook her head. “I can’t have them know that he came looking for me.”
He sighed deeply. “What if… I told them that you caught him? By accident.”
He could see the relief in her eyes. “Alright,” she relented. “Just… as long as they don’t think… that it was targeted.”
“Not until you’re ready.”
“I won’t ever be ready.”
“Then I won’t ever tell them.”
The silence lasted long enough for the wind to shift outside, carrying the scent of rain from the west. Sloane lay back down on the cot. Pulled the blanket up. Pressed her face into the pillow.
She didn’t tell him to leave.
He watched the door until dawn.
She fell asleep near sunrise. Chris waited until her breathing had steadied before he stood.
The compound was waking as he walked the eastern path. Smoke from the kitchen fires. The smell of bread baking.
He found Kahn in the study. Kahn sat behind the oak desk with a mug of tea going cold at his elbow. Viktor stood at the wall map, one arm crossed over his chest.
They both looked up when Chris walked in.
“You look like hell,” Viktor said.
“Didn’t sleep.” Chris pulled a chair back from the desk and sat down. “There’s a security issue. Last night, during the ritual, someone breached the eastern boundary. An exile. Male, late fifties, early sixties. He was on compound grounds, inside a residential cottage at the eastern edge.”
Viktor straightened. “Which cottage?”
“Sloane Mercer’s.”
The name landed. Kahn’s fingers closed around the edge of the patrol report he’d been holding, the paper crinkling.
“Was she injured?” Kahn asked.
“She’s bruised. She wouldn’t go to the infirmary.”
Viktor had turned back to the map, tracing the eastern boundary. “The wards on that section were reinforced six weeks ago. Caitlynn walked the anchor points herself.”
“They didn’t trigger,” Chris said. “No alarm went up. Nobody in the patrol rotation flagged an incursion.”
“Tell me what you know about the man.”
Chris measured his words. “He’s been gone a long time. He’s been in contact before, testing how close he can get. Last night he escalated.”
“In contact with Sloane?” Viktor pressed.
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
