chapter 31

*Aurelia's Pov*Cassian called at six in the morning.Not a message. A call. Which meant it wasn't the kind of thing he wanted written anywhere.I was already awake, had been since five, sitting at my desk with the territorial application draft that Theo had revised twice overnight because Theo revised things until they were right regardless of the hour. The call came through and I looked at it for one second before I answered."Talk to me." I said."I need you to come here." Cassian said. "Now. Alone."His voice had the specific quality of someone who had been awake all night with something and had reached the point where carrying it alone was no longer possible."How long." I said."An hour." He said. "Less if you move."I was already standing. "I'm moving."I looked at the desk. At the draft. The building is quiet around me with its early morning breathing.I did not wake Adrian.I told myself it was because I didn't have enough information yet.That was partially true.I put on my jacket and

chapter 32

*Adrian's Pov*Drake took the news the way he took everything.Quietly. Completely. With the specific stillness of someone who processed fast and spoke only after the processing was finished.He looked at the floor plan for a long time.Then at the early warning draft with Rhett's handwriting in the margins.Then at me."How long has he been in the compound?" He said."Eleven days." I said."Eleven days." Drake repeated. Not echo. Calculation. "The security rotation he had access to. The committee sessions. The recovery assessment briefings." He looked at the documents. "He's been thorough.""Yes." I said."The five he brought out." Drake said. "Sol. Calla. The others.""We don't know yet." Aurelia said from across the table.Drake looked at her. "We need to know before tonight.""Yes." She said."Which means we need to talk to Rhett." He said."Yes." I said."And when we talk to him." Drake said. "He knows the window is compromised.""The window was always going to be compromised the moment we foun

chapter 33

*Aurelia's Pov* Rhett talked for two hours.Not just the floor plan. Not just the early warning blind spots. Everything Edgar had asked for over eleven days and everything Rhett had delivered and the specific channel he had used to deliver it and the four other pieces of information that hadn't made it into the documents Cassian's contact had found. The territorial application submission dates.The counter-agent batch schedule from Jin's lab.The names of everyone who had attended the first early warning committee session.And Nyxara's lab access hours.That last one sat in my chest with a cold specific weight.Nyxara's lab access hours.Edgar wasn't just planning a physical approach to the compound.He was planning to move on Nyxara directly. I kept my face level through the rest of what Rhett said and waited until he finished and then I asked three clarifying questions and got three precise answers and then I told him to stay in the compound and not communicate through any channel unt

chapter 34

*Aurelia's Pov*The compound at three in the morning had the specific quality of aftermath.Not celebration. Not relief. The particular settling of people who had been braced for something and had met it and were now in the specific recalibration of the hour after.Marco was at the front entrance when I came through.He looked at me. Read my face. Stepped aside.I moved through the corridor toward the central room and the building received me with its sounds, the low voices of the people who had been on the ground floor through the approach, the specific quiet of the sub-level below where twenty people were sleeping or trying to.Adrian was in the central room.He turned when I came in.We looked at each other across the room for a moment.Then I said, "The children.""Sub-level." He said. "Astra confirmed an hour ago." He paused. "Brenda found three things to explore in the sub-level before she would agree to sleep.""Of course she did." I said."Brian told her two of them weren't interesting

chapter 35

*Aurelia's Pov*Brenda found the instructions at six fifteen.I knew because I heard her.Not subtly. Brenda had never done anything subtly in her life and the discovery of new disappearing game rules was not the moment she chose to begin."BRIAN."Footsteps. Fast. The specific thunder of a seven year old who had located something important and required immediate witness."BRIAN THERE'S NEW RULES."A door. Then another. Then Astra's voice, muffled, saying something that contained the word *six fifteen* with the specific weight of a woman who had gone to sleep four hours ago.I lay in bed and listened to the building wake up around the discovery of round four and felt something in my chest that was warm and ordinary and entirely unrelated to anything that had happened in the last twenty hours.Then I got up.The kitchen at seven was its usual chaos, amplified by the specific energy of two children who had slept in a sub-level and woken up to new game rules and were processing both facts at co

All Chapters of Reborn To Ruin The Alpha: Chapter 31 - Chapter 35

chapter 31

chapter 32

chapter 33

chapter 34

chapter 35