Aiden flexed his new band, testing the fit.
It was a cheap replacement, Rell's cousin's work, unmarked and deliberately basic.
No deep syncs.
No grid access.
Just enough to ping as alive and unremarkable.
He sat at the console with a portable drive instead of a full link, watching drone patterns through a filtered feed Mara had routed through three proxies.
"Like looking through mud," he muttered.
Kael, sorting cables behind him, snorted.
"Better than looking through a hospital bed," he said.
Aiden shot him a look.
"I'm fine."
"You're upright," Kael corrected. "Fine is when you stop flinching at shadows."
The safe room felt heavier today.
More bodies.
Fewer jokes.
Nia and Tal murmured over a map of secondary nests, marking drone hotspots with red pins.
Suri tested a new sensor rig, her fingers steady but her mouth tight.
Upstairs, Rell's mother ran an extra load of legitimate laundry, cover noise for the hum of their real work.
