RYKE
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Ryke had expected the confrontation with Corin Vess to end the moment Mitch produced Vesna's documentation.
He was wrong.
He heard the commotion from Talia's room — raised voices in the hallway, and beneath them, the specific sound of someone deciding, in real time, that cooperation was no longer his best available option.
He was in the hallway before the sound fully registered as danger, and what he found there confirmed his instinct had been correct: Corin Vess, backed against the wall, a syringe in his hand that hadn't been there minutes before, his composed professional mask entirely gone now, replaced by the specific desperation of a man watching years of careful work collapse in front of him.
"Stay back," Corin said, to Silo, who had positioned himself between the man
