Page 137 of Fractured Loyalties
But I’m about to find out.
None of us speak after that. It’s like a final and irreversible decision. Whatever line we were holding back from, we’ve crossed it now.
Elias doesn’t wait for permission. He just turns and walks, purpose burning in every step.
He loads the trunk with precision. Not just weapons. Not just gear. But backup identities. Ghost tools. Layers of misdirection. Every piece of his past coming out of retirement like it never aged.
I watch from the steps. Arms crossed. Not because I’m cold. Because I don’t know where to put the heat crawling under my skin.
Lydia hovers near the door, tablet in hand, skimming data with the speed of someone who’s memorized entire continents by accident. “Northeast node triangulated three pulses from the docks. Last one went cold at 0200.”
“Which means Vale pulled the relay,” Elias says. “He’s shifting base.”
“Or going dark to bait you.”
“He already has.”
He slams the trunk. Not violently. Just final.
I step forward now, toward the car.
The silence isn’t awkward. It’s loaded. Two people building a war out of glances and breaths.
When he speaks again, it’s to the windshield. “There’s a train yard. East perimeter of the industrial belt. Used to be clean. Now it pings dirty every forty-eight hours.”
“You think that’s his nest?”
“No. I think it’s where he lets people see him. Where he chooses to be watched.”
“And you’re going to walk into it?”
“I’m going to make him think I’m stupid enough to.”
The plan unfolds as we drive. Each detail stripped to its core. No theory. No flair. Just edges.
He’s not thinking like a man in love.
He’s thinking like a weapon that remembers what it felt like to be loved once—and what it cost.
We reach the ridge above the train yard before noon. The sun is sharp. Unforgiving.
Elias scans the grid. “Three exits. One elevated platform. Two inbound access tunnels.”
“And you want me where?”
“High. Blind side. If something moves where it shouldn’t, you drop it or call it.”
I don’t hesitate.
Because the version of me that waits is already gone.
He hands me the comms bead.
I slide it in.
His eyes catch mine. “You freeze, I call it off.”
I nod.
