The silence dragged on for so long that the heart monitor's electronic beep began to subtly quicken, its rhythmic tone transforming into a treacherous metronome that betrayed the erratic panic Bek was fighting to contain deep in his chest. Taishi's gaze remained unyielding, fixed on him with a piercing clarity behind his lenses, waiting for a logical, analytical answer—the response of an elite athlete who trusts his mentor blindly. But Zinov's shadow, stretching wide from where he stood just a few paces from the clinical gurney, felt like an immense concrete wall on the absolute verge of collapsing and crushing the remains of his willpower.
