The silence in the command hub was more violent than any explosion. The blue light of the monitors cast long, skeletal shadows across Caspian's face, making him look like a ghost of the commander he had once been.
"Julian," Caspian repeated the name as if it were a curse. He didn't slam his fist into the console or roar in rage. He simply stood there, his rifle hanging at his side, his eyes fixed on the flickering metadata that proved his oldest friend had sold them out. "He didn't just leak the coordinates. He's been feeding Elias the biometric data from our training sessions. He knew exactly how we'd breach this facility."
Linnea's fingers were still trembling as she pulled the raw data from the server. "It's worse than that, Caspian. Look at the timestamps. Julian didn't start working with Elias after the marriage. He's been in contact with the Song family since the day your father's estate was first audited. He's the one who suggested me as your bride. He didn't just find a mole; he planted one."
Caspian turned to her, his gaze sharp enough to cut. "He used you to bait me into a marriage that would eventually destroy my reputation. He needed a 'Ghost' in my bed so he could justify my execution to the Council when the time came."
"And now he knows we've found him," Linnea said, her eyes snapping to the motion sensors on the perimeter. "Caspian, the loop—he's broken it."
Outside, the shipyard suddenly flared to life. Massive stadium lights flickered on, cutting through the fog like white daggers. The silence was replaced by the high-pitched whine of Federation sirens and the heavy, rhythmic thrum of gunship rotors.
"This wasn't an extraction point," Caspian growled, grabbing Linnea's arm and pulling her away from the glass window. "This is a kill box."
"Julian is going to claim we came here to meet Elias to finalize the coup," Linnea realized, her mind racing through the tactical implications. "By the time the sun comes up, the news feeds will show the 'Hero of the North' standing in a shipyard filled with Eastern Bloc hardware. They won't even give us a trial."
"They have to catch us first," Caspian said. He pulled a heavy incendiary charge from his vest and slapped it onto the server bank. "If Julian wants to play with fire, we'll give him a goddamn inferno."
They sprinted out of the command hub just as the first breach-charges detonated on the warehouse floor below. Federation Enforcers—men Caspian had trained himself—swarmed into the building, their red laser-sights crisscrossing the darkness.
"Hangar 4!" Caspian shouted over the roar of a hovering gunship. "There's an old interceptor stored there for 'disposal.' If Julian hasn't sabotaged the fuel lines, it's our only way out of the harbor."
They moved with a desperate, unified speed. No more acting, no more "spoiling." Linnea drew her twin sidearms, providing a suppressive screen of fire that forced the Enforcers into cover, while Caspian used his overwhelming strength to kick through reinforced doors and clear the path.
As they reached the hangar, a familiar voice echoed over the shipyard's PA system. It was Julian—calm, analytical, and utterly devoid of remorse.
"Caspian, don't make this difficult. The mathematics are finalized. You are a variable that has reached its expiration date. Surrender Linnea, and I'll ensure your execution is private. A soldier's end for a man who forgot his duty."
Caspian didn't look up. He was already at the interceptor's cockpit, ripping the tarp away. "Julian!" he roared back into the night. "You always were bad at calculus! You forgot to carry the one!"
"What does that mean?" Linnea asked, jumping into the navigator's seat as the engines began to scream.
"It means he forgot I have you," Caspian said, slamming the canopy shut.
The interceptor roared to life, its thrusters melting the asphalt of the hangar floor. They burst out of the building just as the incendiary charges in the command hub detonated, sending a pillar of fire into the night sky that rivaled the rising sun.
As they streaked over the black water of the Northern coast, Linnea looked at the man beside her. He was a traitor to his empire, a man who had lost his home and his best friend in a single night. But as he reached over and gripped her hand, his eyes were clear.
"Where to?" she asked.
"The Grey Zone," Caspian said. "It's time we stopped playing by their rules and started writing our own."