Chapter 9 · Loopbound - Chapter 9: The Woman Beside Him

Callum woke up on concrete.

Not the dorm mattress. Not the scratchy academy sheets that smelled like industrial bleach. Cold stone under his cheek and the hum of active wards vibrating through his teeth.

He pushed up. His hands were shaking.

The room was small. Maybe ten feet across. Three walls were smooth gray stone. The fourth was a shimmering barrier, the kind that looked like heat distortion over summer asphalt but felt like static when you got close. He'd seen one once in a field exercise outside Kandahar. Command used them to hold detainees before transport.

Someone was sitting against the far wall.

A woman. Dark hair pulled back, streaked with gray. Thin. Too thin. She was wearing academy robes, the old kind with the high collar and the Thornwell crest embroidered in silver thread. They didn't make those anymore. He'd seen them in the archive photos Vera showed him three loops ago.

The woman looked up.

Callum's chest went tight.

He knew her face. He'd carried a photo of it in his wallet for eleven years, through two deployments and a medical discharge.