The shout snapped through the air like a switch.
"Director on deck."
Every soldier within earshot straightened. Conversations cut off mid-word. A dic with a clipboard froze, pen hovering just above the page. Even the drones seed to pause, rotors humming in place.
Sera watched the change before she looked at the door.
People were always more interesting than titles.
Boots hit the tal walkway outside the yard with a steady, unhurried rhythm. Not the heavy stomp of soone trying to prove authority, not the quick clatter of soone late. Just a walk, asured and certain, as if the man behind the sound had never once considered not being obeyed.
He stepped through the doorway a mont later.
Middle-aged, she guessed. Lines at the corners of his mouth that ca from frowning more than smiling. Hair cut short, threaded with grey at the temples. Broad shoulders under armor that was cleaner than the others’, but not new—scuffs at the edges, a few dark marks that might have been old blood ground into the seams.
His badge read:
DIRECTOR ADRIAN RCER
CDC – CONTINUITY DIVISION
He wore no helt. Apparently, he didn’t need one. His presence was armor enough and it was clear that no one here was willing to ss with him.
The soldiers around them shifted into a sharper version of their already-straight stances. Rifles dipped to a safer angle but did not lower. A few heads tipped in a small, instinctive nod.
They trust him, the creature inside her observed. Not because he is kind. Because he brought them this far.
Sera watched him with open interest.
He looked like a man who had led troops before the world fell apart. The way he carried himself. The way his gaze moved over the yard—scanning exits, counting bodies, checking weapons without really looking at them. Military, then Director. He wore both like a well-fitted coat.
rcer’s eyes swept across the space, taking everything in.
They passed over the tanks, the decon rig, the d stations. Over Dr. Kearns, who snapped to attention with her shoulders still slightly tense. Over the rank-and-file soldiers. Over the four n and the direwolf standing in a loose line in front of her.
Then his gaze settled on Sera.
It wasn’t a long stare. It wasn’t dramatic. He looked at her the way a surgeon might look at an X-ray—assessing, not impressed, not dismissive. Just checking for fractures.
The scanner at Kearns’s hip gave a soft double-beep. Kearns flinched minutely, then lifted her chin.
"Director," she greeted. "Intake from Region O. All altered. Blood panels show non-degraded viral interaction. No inflammatory markers. Two of them flagged off-table." She flicked her eyes toward Sera and Elias in turn. "The system doesn’t know where to put them."
rcer stepped closer, out from behind the line of soldiers.
"Which two." It wasn’t a question so much as a demand for clarity.
Kearns lifted the analyzer and brought up the last result. "Navarre and the female. Everything the infection should have burned through or broken... stabilised. No fever spikes, no tissue breakdown in the usual way. It’s... tidy."
Tidy, the creature echoed, amused. She likes that word. I’m willing to bet that he will like it more.
rcer studied the screen. The blue light reflected in his eyes.
Then he looked up at Elias.
"You’re Navarre."
"Yes." Elias kept his voice flat. "Doctor. dical and field. Pre-collapse."
rcer’s gaze flicked down Elias’s fra—eyes, hands, stance, old scars, the set of his shoulders. Approval touched his expression for half a heartbeat. One soldier recognizing another.
"You were military first," rcer judged. "Then a white coat."
"Correct."
rcer shifted his attention to Sera again.
"And you."
Her lips curled a little at the corners. "Sera."
"No unit designation. No CDC rank." He glanced at Kearns. "Civilians with this profile don’t usually walk into my walls."
"We didn’t walk into your walls," Lachlan put in, unable to resist. "You built them in our way."
Several rifles twitched upward a fraction. One of the soldiers near Lachlan’s shoulder tightened a finger along the trigger guard.
rcer didn’t look at him.
"Humor under stress," he noted, almost lazily. "It wears thin fast."
Sera watched the exchange, amused. rcer’s calm reminded her a little of Elias and Zubair combined—calculating like one, steady like the other. Less honest than Zubair. Less curious than Elias. More... focused.
You understand this type, her creature purred. He builds pens and calls them protection. People walk in willingly, because they fear the unknown more than they fear him.
Sera’s fingers flexed once at her sides. Protection was not a word she trusted.
rcer turned to Kearns again. "Current status."
"Filed as non-cleared, non-CDC altered," Kearns replied. "Field scanners tagged bio-positive, but no visible lesions. No feral behavior. No signs of acute turn. The dire wolf, if that is what it actually is, is unnaturally large, but compliant."
Luci rumbled under his breath. He understood tone if not vocabulary.
rcer gave the wolf a brief glance. "Containnt grade?"
"Low, with caution," Kearns answered. "If they’re cooperative."
The director considered that for half a beat.
"No," he decided. "We didn’t survive the part three years by assuming cooperation."
He raised his voice just enough for the soldiers to hear without needing to shout.
"Squad One, maintain periter. Squad Two, escort to internal isolation. No restraints unless they force it."
A soft exhale ran through the soldiers. Apparently, orders were comfort.
Sera watched the ripple of relief move through them. Numbers of dead didn’t matter to these people. The fact that they still had a Director, still had chain of command, still had soone giving orders that sounded like a plan—that was what they clung to.
rcer stepped closer to her, closing the distance until they were a few arm-lengths apart.
"You understand where you are," he checked.
"Inside Region T," she answered. "Inside your... cage."
A few soldiers stiffened.
rcer’s mouth twitched, not quite a smile. "Inside my responsibility," he corrected. "Everyone on this side of the line falls under CDC care. That ans protocols. It ans obedience. It ans you do not get to decide what is safe for the rest of my people."
"Your people," Sera repeated, tasting the phrase. "Do you count them?"
"Every day."
"And the ones who die? Have you kept count of that, too?"
Reviews
All reviews (0)