Page 107 of Stars in Umbra
Finally, they reached the secure wing at the base’s core: the Dunian Military Data Nexus.
The entrance doors whooshed open, revealing a cavernous vault lined with stacked terminals, holographic interfaces, and ceiling-high data cores.
At its center stood a containment unit: a Faraday isolation chamber, transparent, reinforced, a technological null zone. No transmissions in, no signals out. Pure data silence.
Mo’s expression narrowed on it. ‘I’ll go in alone and talk inside. Full blackout.’
Rina hesitated. His posture was rigid, his jaw inflexible.
Below that cold facade, however, she sensed the strain of restraint, of control, fought for and just barely maintained.
‘All right,’ she said at last. ‘First, you need some clothes on you. Can’t have you wondering like a half-naked demigod escapee. This is still a military facility; we have to maintain proper dignity.’
A flicker of amusement passed across his face. ‘Didn’t hear you complain back in the hospital.’
He leaned in closer with a faint smirk. ‘Or the nights we spent together.’
‘Ah, there he is, back from the dead.’
‘Ain’t that thefokkin’ truth.’
His lips turned up at the edges as she twisted from him and keyed open a side locker.
She rummaged until she found a clean batch of barracks-issue fatigues and a pair of reinforced boots.
She returned and held them out to him, her fingers brushing his as he took them.
He stepped inside the Faraday cage, the pressure-lock engaging with a soft chime.
The field activated, surrounding him in a glimmering dome of silence.
She observed him in the cage as he set the clothes down on a nearby bench, changed fast, and then turned to meet her gaze through the barrier.
‘Do I pass muster, Colonel?’
How did he manage to appear devastating even in utility fatigues? Damn him.
Rina folded her arms.
She swallowed her desire and concern for him and sought to address the obvious. ‘Mo, I’ve put my career on the line for you, which I’d do regardless. However, if matters spiral out of control, my profession might be the first casualty. I might even be court-martialled, so whatever you’re about to say had better be worth it.’
His lips curled in a ghost of a smile. ‘This is as freakin’ close to the precipice as it gets, Colonel. You might even earn yourself an instant Brigadier badge if we don’t screw it up.’
‘Fine. Now talk.’
MOLAN
Mo stood in the center of the isolation cage, the hum of the Faraday field pressing in.
It suppressed all external signals; the world outside the transparent walls was distant and sealed off.
The data center’s consoles blinked in silent procession behind Rina’s still form, her arms folded, waiting.
She’d brought him here.
Trusted him enough to walk him into the core of Dunian military intelligence without firing a shot.
It rattled him more than the assault. More than the hovering memory of his own body rising, lightning-lit, from that hospital bed.
