Elias didn't let him go.
He kept his focus tight as he turned to face Vira, forcing calm into his voice.
"I see," he said. "That's a smart play."
The words came out clean, but his gut twisted under them. His shard pulsed in his chest, slow and deliberate, syncing to the tick of the system prompt overhead—Save a life. 23:38.
"How long have you been planning this?" he asked.
He wasn't trying to provoke her. Just control the pace. His perception picked at the details without permission—Vira's weight distribution, the shallow twitch at the corner of her mouth, the casual confidence in her stance that hadn't faltered once since the beginning.
The pod's hum carried low beneath it all. The corridor beyond remained still. Pipes reflected light from the cracked fixture above the door—silent, steady, cold.
