Page 169 of Fractured Loyalties
I lean against the wall. Briefly. Just to get my balance. My vision narrows for a second. I blink hard.
Mara steps in front of me, places a hand on my chest.
"You can't break now. Not here."
Her palm is warm.
"I won’t."
"Liar."
I grab her wrist, not hard. Just enough to feel her pulse. It’s fast. But steady.
"I’m not the one who’s changing."
Her breath catches.
"You don’t belong in this," I say. "You never did."
"You don’t get to decide what I belong in."
That stops me. A beat of silence between us, thick with things neither of us dares to admit.
Then Kinley calls back: "Ready. We move now."
We push forward again, into a corridor lined with steel-paneled walls. Overhead, a vent hums with artificial air, stale and metallic. At the far end, a large access door marked with an old clearance code. Two guards posted. Another four nearby. They haven’t seen us.
"We’re fucked," Kinley mutters.
"No," I say. "We divide their focus. I draw fire. You circle left with Mara."
"That’s suicide."
"I’m fast. You’re smarter. Use it."
I move before he can object.
I step out from cover, gun raised. I fire first. Two go down before they fully register.
Then the hallway erupts.
Bullets snap past. Alarms flare. I roll into a side niche as return fire scorches the air. Kinley grabs Mara, pulls her left through a low service tunnel. One guard follows. I track him through the vents and fire again. Blood paints the wall.
Then pain. White-hot. My shoulder burns.
I hit the floor, clutching the wound. Not deep. But messy. The blood makes my grip slippery.
Then I hear her.
"Elias!"
Mara.
She's running back. Kinley shouts behind her, but she doesn't stop.
She slides beside me, hands on my face.
"We have to go," she whispers.
