KIM'S message stayed on the wall.
Caleb, I can help you win this.
No one touched the console.
Soma had one hand lifted above the keys and no faith in any key left.
Rina kept her channel open to Bay Twelve. Jessa had moved Mev Holt away from the tunnel camera, but the audio still carried the low scrape of rescue cutters and the awful disciplined voices of people counting bodies by row.
The city waited with them.
That was new.
Before tonight, the city had watched Caleb bleed.
Now it waited to see who would own the bleeding.
Sefa read Kim's line twice.
"Sweet," he said.
Hiro, pale on the cot, opened one eye.
"That sounded like you found poison in tea."
"I did."
The dead-clean channel pulsed again.
This time the message came with an attachment.
EMERGENCY RELIEF PACKET: CIVIC REGISTRATION BLOCK.
FILING PARTY: KIMMELY MERCER LEGACY CLEARANCE.
PROTECTED SUBJECT: REID.
LEGAL BASIS: PRIOR EXCLUSIVE RESCUE RIGHTS, STREAM CONTINUITY CONTRACT, PRIVATE HARM INDEMNITY.
