Chapter 8 · Bomb in the Office

"Your office." Reina's voice cut through the dust still settling in the corridor. "The blast starts there this loop."

Marcus didn't stop walking. His boots crunched over broken tile, past the spot where Danny had been pinned under steel thirty seconds ago. The kid was alive now. Breathing. That bought him exactly nothing if the bomb was already live.

"How do you know?"

"Because I set the damn thing." She was keeping pace, half a step behind. Close enough he could hear her breathing hard. "Different trigger each time. Shadow tells me where, I adjust."

He rounded the corner to the admin wing. His office door hung open. He hadn't left it that way.

"So what changed?"

"You did." Her hand caught his arm. He stopped. Her fingers were cold even through his jacket. "You saved them in the hall. Shadow said you'd chase me. You always chase me."

Marcus looked at her hand, then her face. Pale under the emergency lights. No tears. Just that flat, mission-ready stare he'd graded her on for two years.

"I'm chasing you now."

"No." She let go. "You're walking into a trap with me. There's a difference."

He pushed past her.