RONAN I caught Victor’s eye and stopped him with a small lift of my fingers. The motion was slight, almost lazy, but it carried weight. Victor’s brow pulled tight. I saw the irritation flare, sharp and hot, then get pushed back down where discipline lived. He exhaled through his nose and leaned into his chair. The metal legs scraped softly against the floor before going still. The room felt tighter after that, like the air had learned to behave. I turned back to the man chained to the table. Steel cuffs cut into his wrists, skin already rubbed raw. His shoulders were locked in place, muscles coiled and ready. I pulled my mouth into something that might pass for a smile if you didn’t look too closely. “You have a beautiful daughter.”The words moved slowly through the room. They didn’t rush. They waited. His one good eye widened for a fraction of a second. A clean reaction. Honest. Shock answered before his mind could get in the way. Then it disappeared, buried under fury that snapped into place like a mask. “Go fuck yourself.” I didn’t react. I let the silence breathe for a moment. “You had a good data security guy,” I went on. “He knew what he was doing. He made sure your device was clean. No loose ends. No easy mistakes.” He stared at me, jaw grinding, eye hard and unblinking. “I’m guessing he also told you to delete your photos.” “I ain’t telling you shit.” I lifted one shoulder, easy and relaxed.“You don’t have to. The photos weren’t the real danger anyway. Not just faces. Not just body shapes. They carry location data. It’s part of the file. Built in so your phone knows where you were when you took them. Helps keep things organized. That part sticks around longer than people think.” I waved my hand through the air, slow and careless. Victor glanced down at his device as it buzzed softly. His eyes flicked over the screen. Coordinates locked in. I looked back at him. “That spot within range of the artillery at Blackstone International Terminal?” The man went stiff all at once. No gradual tension. Just locked. His head snapped toward Victor, chains clinking as he moved. Victor smiled, thin and amused, like this was all playing out exactly the way he expected. “Not the heavy guns,” Victor said. “But we’ve got enough NLOS STS pods to make it work.” “You’re bluffing.” His voice came out rough. He yanked against the chains. Metal screamed against metal. A soldier stepped forward on instinct. I raised my hand again. He froze where he was. “You wouldn’t kill her,” the man said. “She’s a kid.” His voice cracked on the last word, no matter how hard he tried to stop it. “Plenty of kids are dead because of you and your friends,” I said. “Why does yours get a pass? You know how this works. We don’t care who gets hurt.” My mother’s face pushed into my thoughts without asking. Not the version on the floor. Not that one. The other one. Standing in my doorway. Light spilling in behind her. Pills clenched in my hand. That look of disappointment that cut deeper than shouting ever could. I forced it down. I replaced it with cold skin, still eyes, life already gone. That image was easier to carry. It made this simpler. I wasn’t going to kill the girl. That part didn’t matter. He had to believe I would. No hesitation. No doubt. No room for mercy. “How long would that rocket take to reach her?” I closed my eyes, like I was running numbers in my head. “Just under five minutes,” Victor said, leaning closer to the table. “Unless we had better targets. Ones that mattered more. Then I couldn’t justify firing on her location.” The man’s breathing picked up. Short pulls of air. Sharp and uneven. Panic started bleeding through the anger. “You’d be executed for that,” he said. “Your courts would destroy you.” Victor exploded to his feet. The chair flew back and hit the floor. His hands slammed onto the table, the sound cracking through the room. “My orders are to locate insurgent sites,” he said. “A family home counts. And who’s going to testify for you?” He tilted his chin toward the soldier. “You see anything?” “You’d have to see something to say something,” the soldier replied without hesitation. “I haven’t seen shit, sir.” Victor grinned and turned to me. “And you?” I shrugged. The man finally really looked at me then, searching my face for something solid. “Technically, I’m not even here.” I let the silence stretch longer than was comfortable. I knew what it did to people like him. The stories. The rumors. The fear stitched together from half-truths and bad memories. “You’re full of crap,” he said. “You wouldn’t do it.” Victor laughed, loud and loose. He grabbed his pad and tapped the screen. Once. Twice. Three times. A low roar rolled through the building. The floor shuddered beneath our feet.Dust drifted down from somewhere overhead. A sharp shriek ripped through the air as the rocket tore past. “You son of a bitch!” The man lurched upward. The chains snapped him back into the chair. The corporal slammed him down, hands locked on his shoulders. He fought anyway. Spit flew. Veins stood out in his neck. “I’ll kill you. You fucking pig. I’ll skull fuck your mother!”