Thorne POV
The debrief room smelled like burnt coffee and old paper, the same as it always did, though tonight it felt different sitting in it without the adrenaline of an active op running underneath everything.
"Walk me through the maintenance shaft collapse again," the review officer said, tablet in hand, methodical in a way that had annoyed me for years and that I'd learned, slowly, to respect. "You made the call to split the team."
"I made the call because the structure was failing faster than our exit route could accommodate everyone moving as one group," I said. "Splitting reduced our footprint. It was the right call given the information available."
"Two civilians were nearly lost in that split."
"Two civilians survived that split," I said. "Ariston and Tiffany Reyes made it out because the smaller group moved faster than a combined one would have. I stand by the decision."
