Page 89 of Cold Ignition

That pulled Rangi’s attention.

Kael’s gaze swept the room, locking each of them in place without raising his voice.

“Then we don’t give them time to settle,” he said. “We find where that network leads—” He glanced at Luca. “—and we end it properly.”

Luca’s fingers were already moving again, pulling deeper layers, tracking the routes outward. Because now—this wasn’t about Crucible.

Crucible was finished.

Burned out.

A feeder system that had done its job until it ran into something stronger.

This—this was about what had been feeding on it. Rangi glanced sideways, catching Keanu’s eye. Then Alexios’s.

Luca’s voice cut back in, quieter now, but sharper. “I’ve got a path.”

All eyes snapped back to the screen. Coordinates began to resolve.

Something bigger. Something structured. Something waiting.

Rangi’s grin came back. Slow and dangerous.

“Yeah,” he said. “We have a pace to start.”

“Let’s see what’s behind the curtain.

****

The command center didn’t empty all at once. It thinned. Slowly. Deliberately. Like no one wanted to be the first to break the line of focus that had held them all in place.

Rangi stayed where he was for a second longer than necessary, arms folded, gaze still locked on the screen even as Luca shifted into something quieter behind the console—already pulling at threads none of them could see yet.

Crucible was done.

They had cut the head off and burned the body behind it.

But what Luca had shown them—it made it clear that this wasn’t over. That the real battle was just about to start.

Rangi exhaled slowly, rolling his shoulders once before pushing off the table.

“Let’s move,” he muttered.

Keanu and Alexios didn’t argue. Didn’t hesitate.

Keanu stepped in beside him without thinking, close enough that their arms brushed as they turned toward the exit. Alexios fell into place on the other side, silent, deliberate, already aligned.

The three of them moved together.

No one stopped them. No one questioned it.

The three of them moved to the bus, their home on wheels, the place that Keanu had been building for the three of them, and never really knew it.

They kept the lights low. Not dark—none of them wanted that. Just enough that they could see each other clearly.

After everything—that mattered.

Keanu lay back against the mattress, the low hum of the bus running under them, the faint vibration grounding him in a way he hadn’t realized he needed.