Back in the depot, the air tasted like metal.
The laundromat hummed on the other side of the thin wall, machines churning, someone laughing at something on a low-volume screen. The sound had the particular quality of people who didn't know they were standing next to something.
In the hidden room, no one was laughing.
Kael sat on the edge of a crate while Rin finished wrapping his shoulder. The bolt had burned through the plating cleanly and grazed the skin underneath, which was better than it could have been and worse than she was saying out loud. He let her work. It gave his hands something to do that wasn't generating electricity.
Aiden stood at the comms console with his eyes on his device, reading Mara's message for the third time.
Taro was pacing. He paced when he was processing something that his usual mental architecture hadn't built a room for yet.
"Read the last line again," Rin said without looking up from the bandage.
Aiden read it.
