Director Mercer let a small beat pass as he continued to watch Elias react to his words.
Then he shifted.
"You volunteered for a lot during the first years," Mercer noted. "Containment efforts. Vaccine trials. Field rotations into hot zones you weren't obligated to enter. Over and over."
"It was needed," Elias answered.
"That isn't why you did it." Mercer's voice stayed soft. "Plenty of people knew it was needed and stayed home. You went into burning rooms because you wanted to be the one who walked out carrying the design for a better fire extinguisher."
Elias's fingers stilled.
Mercer stepped closer, inside the instinct line, making the guards at the doorway tense.
"You want to matter," Mercer pressed. "Not in the way men like Lachlan or Alexei matter, not in blood on the ground. You want your name attached to the solution. The treatment. The protocol that future generations point to and say, 'There. That is where the tide turned.'"
