Page 112 of Green Ravens

Valor didn’t react.

“I should’ve left you in the jungle to rot.” The AD grunted. “Biggest mistake I ever made was bringing you two back here.”

It felt as if he’d been backhanded. The words stung like poison.

Rage surged, immediate and unstoppable.

A vast jungle flashed before Valor’s eyes—animals in cages, then gunshots, flames, needles in his veins, electromagnets taped to his skull. Memory loss, poisons injected into him that made his blood boil. The agony, the burning, the foreignness all came back in searing flashes.

Valor roared before he began to repeatedly slam his fists into the AD’s face. Into bone. His screams dying beneath the crunch of flesh and cartilage.

Zorion never moved, didn’t try to stop him.

When it was over, the AD was no more.

Valor stared at his own hands, stained with someone else’s life.

He left Hank Madison there.

The walls trembled as another explosion rocked the facility.

Zorion gazed at him, his beautiful green eyes on fire.

“We need to go.”

Valor nodded once.

Smoke curled in thick ribbons throughout the corridors, with flames licking up the walls as sirens wailed in the distance.

Behind them, White Sector 30 would burn.

Jo’s voice crackled in their ears, sharp and urgent.

“If you’re not on the roof in three minutes, you’re going to encounter authorities you arenotauthorized to kill, only evasive tactics.”

“Hard copy,” Valor said, voice clipped but calm.

“Roof access straight ahead,” Jo stated. “Exit signs your mark.”

Valor saw it, glowing red like a beacon.

They were fifteen meters away from the door before the hairs on the back of Valor’s neck prickled to the point he had to stop.

His senses flared. Something wasn’t right.

Zorion came to a skidding halt.

“You feel that too?”

Valor nodded.

They took slow, silent steps, scanning the rooms ahead.

They went another couple of yards, and that was when they saw them.

On their left, behind thick reinforced glass, stood two figures cloaked entirely in white—barefoot, crouched, and motionless.

They were statues carved from frost. Heads low and covered. Their breathing shallow.