Vasa did not leave the hospital after Sorn accepted the escrow. She moved into a vacant records room beside the receiving wing, covered the window with ice, and arranged the transaction receipts across three desks.
The first receipt came from Kest's entry. The second came from Sorn's thumbprint on the patient-protection condition. The third came from the Directorate officers who paid to bring their weapons through the gate.
Each one was small enough to look irrelevant beside a nine-city seizure order. Together, they established something the national filing had tried to deny from the beginning.
The Citadel could be paid.
Nox leaned against the far wall, careful with the sealed channel. The hospital fight had used less power than a direct assault, but the effort of holding his anger down left a dull pressure behind his eyes.
"Say it without making it sound like a victory speech," he told Vasa.
