She studied the compound, her head moving as she tracked different features. “I mapped every approach to this place years ago, always planning for contingencies. See that section where the fence crosses the ravine?” She pointed to where the perimeter tried to span a natural gap in the terrain. “They had to stretch the sensor grid there. Too much wildlife jumping the ravine sets off false alarms, so they probably loosened the sensitivity. I’ve watched three different creatures cross there without triggering anything.”
I filed the information away. If I had to breach those walls,whenI had to breach them, that weakness could be useful.
“The guards rotate every six hours,” she continued, warming to her subject. “But during shift change, there’s about twelveminutes where the coverage gets thin. They’re sloppy about it because they think nobody’s stupid enough to attack this place.”
“You’ve been watching them.”
“I watch everything that might kill me or be useful.” She grinned. “After five years, you learn to appreciate both categories.”
We picked our way down the ridge, staying well clear of the patrol routes carved into the surrounding hills. As we walked, the silence between us grew heavy. Bronwen kept glancing at me, clearly waiting for more information.
“The man who runs this place,” I said finally. “His name is Joric Slade.”
She looked up from the path, her features sharpening. “Someone you know?”
“Someone I knew.” The words tasted bitter. “We served together. He was my commanding officer.”
“Was?”
“Until he left me and my squad to die.”
The memory rose unbidden. The ambush, the screaming, the way Slade’s face had looked when he’d ordered the retreat without us. The satisfaction in his pale eyes as he’d watched us fall.
“What did you do to deserve that?”
The question caught me off guard. Not why did he betray you, or how could he abandon his men. Just what did you do.
As if she understood instinctively that betrayal was usually personal.
“I questioned his methods. Called him out for targeting civilians.” I kicked at a loose stone, sending it skittering across the path. “He didn’t appreciate the criticism.”
She moved closer, studying my expression. “A principled warrior. How inconvenient for him.” Her hand drummedagainst her thigh as she processed this information. “No wonder you ended up here. The universe does love its little jokes.”
Her genuine curiosity about my past trauma should have been disturbing. Instead, the tightness in my chest loosened.
She gestured toward the compound below us, her voice taking on a practical tone. “So when we find him, you’ll get to settle that particular debt. But first we need to navigate around his security perimeter.”
It wasn’t a question. Just an assessment, delivered like she was already calculating routes and obstacles. Her small hand brushed my arm as she pointed to different sections of the compound, and I noticed she didn’t pull away immediately. The touch lingered, her palm warm against my skin.
“Yes,” I said. And when I come back to shut down those shields, I thought, studying the weak point she’d identified, I’ll use everything you’ve shown me.
“Good.” She was already moving, but there was something different in her movements. Less bounce, more focus. “I do love it when people get to finish important business. Much more satisfying than leaving debts unpaid.”
Not because the rage was gone. It would never be gone. But because someone finally understood that some accounts could only be settled in blood. And she was treating it like a problem worth solving.
BRONWEN
“So what’s your plan for reaching this crash site?” I asked as we crested another hill, the prison compound now a dark smudge behind us. Less than ten kilometers now, if the tracker could be trusted.
Zarek studied the terrain ahead, his jaw set in those grim lines. “Straight through. I don’t know this area.”
I laughed, the sound sharp and bright in the quiet air. “Do you know what’s between here and there?”
“No.”
“Patrol routes. Checkpoints. Three different settlement clusters, each one desperate enough to turn in a crashed off-worlder for the bounty money.” I gestured toward the wasteland stretching before us, already mapping the obstacles in my head. “You’d be captured or killed before you made it halfway.”
His gaze followed the movement of my hands as I gestured, and I caught the way his nostrils flared slightly. I filed that detail away.
