Page 61 of Cold Ignition

Rangi groaned. “We just woke up.”

“And we are still targets.”

That shut him up.

Keanu sat up, more decisive now—back in himself. “Kael’s going to want a full breakdown.”

Rangi blinked. “He’ll get one. But we decide what we give them.”

“You holding out?”

“I’m being cautious. Haven’t survived this long doing what we do for no reason.”

Keanu studied him, then nodded. “Fair.”

Rangi stretched, glancing between them.

“Well,” he said, “this just got a hell of a lot more complicated.”

Neither of them disagreed. And neither stepped away.

That—more than anything—mattered. But Alexios didn’t let the quiet soften the truth beneath it, because under the warmth, beneath the alignment—the Crucible remained.

Drivers weren’t just being used. They were processed.

Alexios’s gaze flicked briefly to Keanu, then to Rangi. Two variables Crucible would value. Two targets they would not release lightly now that they had been taken once.

And Ahi—Ahi would draw them out.

Which meant he would also draw attention. The wrong kind. The kind that escalated fast and didn’t forgive mistakes.

Alexios exhaled slowly, steadying the line of thought before it could sharpen too far. This wasn’t fear. It was preparation.

Because whatever Crucible was building—it was bigger than a racing circuit. And if they stepped back into it without control, without precision—they wouldn’t get a second extraction.

This time, they would disappear.

And now that the future he desperately wanted was within his grasp, Alexios didn’t intend to let that happen.

****

The shift from the quiet of the bus to the controlled intensity of the command center was immediate.

Keanu felt it the second they stepped inside.

The air was cooler. Sharper. Screens lit the space in layered blues and whites, data scrolling, maps shifting, feeds updating in real time. Black Tide moved through it with quiet efficiency—no wasted motion, no raised voices, just precision.

Kael stood at the center of it all, one hand braced against the edge of the main table, eyes tracking the incoming feeds. He didn’t look up straight away when they entered.

He already knew they were there.

“Sit,” he said.

It wasn’t a suggestion.

Keanu glanced once at Rangi, then at Alexios, before moving forward. Rangi dragged a chair out with his foot, dropping into it with less care than the moment probably deserved. Alexios sat more deliberately, controlled even through the pain he was clearly managing.

Keanu remained standing for a second longer.