The Cardinal's voice blew up the nave like a bell of accusation. "How dare you?!" he shouted, outrage ricocheting off marble and glass, every sanctified syllable a challenge.
Dax let the sound wash over him for a beat and then, with a small, almost bored motion, flicked his fingers once toward Edward Rose through the line. The signal was nothing elaborate, just a ready, professional hand at the edge of violence. Edward's men, reading the motion, fell back a step and melted into the shadowed ring of security, pulling their presence away like obedient shutters closing.
Only Killian stayed forward, a single dark figure at Dax's shoulder. For a second the two of them were the only honest things in the room.
