“I'm not even sure I forgive him. But I am asking you to channel your anger productively.”“To focus on getting through Juliet's funeral, on staying safe, on honoring your sister…not on fighting with your father."Victor slumped against the kitchen counter, the fight going out of him. "I just don't understand how you can be so calm about this. How can you even talk to him, acknowledge him, after everything he did to us." Victor Marcus immediately asked, his eyebrows furrowed in bewilderment and curiosity or something like that."I'm not calm," Mrs. Anna Marcus said, her own voice breaking."I'm furious. I'm hurt. There's a part of me that wants to scream at him, to make him feel even a fraction of the pain he caused us. But Victor, I'm also exhausted.”“I just lost my daughter. I'm terrified about this funeral. I'm worried about Sara and Captain Carlos. I don't have the energy to sustain rage at your father on top of everything else." Mrs Anna Marcus said."So you're being practical,

"When he finds out you've been taken," Night Storm continued, "he'll have another crisis to manage. Another distraction to pull his focus away from what really matters.”“Another emotional wound to compromise his judgment." Razor immediately said as she mocked Commander Carlos."You're monsters," Captain Carlos said, the words coming out with more force than he'd managed since waking."Monsters?" Razor repeated, her tone suddenly sharp with anger. "You dare call us monsters? You, who work for an organization that murders innocent people? You, who follow orders from a man with blood on his hands?"The sudden venom in her voice caught Captain Carlos off guard. This wasn't just professional antagonism…this was personal hatred."What are you talking about?" he asked.Razor crouched down again, getting close to his face.In the harsh light of the bare bulb, he could see her eyes clearly for the first time…and what he saw there was pure, distilled rage barely contained beneath a veneer of

"Let him come," Night Storm said. "We're ready for him. We've planned for every contingency.”“We have allies who are just as motivated as we are. Maya Denver wants him dead for killing her father and brother. Lord Cassian wants him dead for destroying his weapons operation and killing his brother. We all have scores to settle.""And you think that makes you stronger?" Captain Carlos challenged. "Multiple agendas, multiple grudges, multiple people all thinking they're in charge?”“That's not strength, that's weakness. The moment things start to go wrong, your alliance will fracture. Everyone will be looking out for themselves. You'll fall apart.""You're trying to sow discord," Razor said."It won't work. We're united in our goal.""For now," Captain Carlos said. "But wait until General Gerald starts taking you apart piece by piece.”“Wait until he's captured some of your allies, disrupted your plans, turned your own tactics against you. Then we'll see how united you are." Commander

Night Storm knelt beside Captain Carlos's writhing form, her medical kit open beside her.In the harsh warehouse light, her face showed something that might have been pity…or perhaps just the clinical detachment of someone performing an unpleasant but necessary task."Hold still," she said, pulling out gauze and a cauterization iron that had been heating over a small portable burner."This is going to hurt worse than the amputation."Captain Carlos was beyond words, beyond thought, lost in a haze of agony so complete it felt like drowning.Blood continued to pour from the ragged stump of his wrist, pooling on the concrete floor around him."Look at you," Night Storm said, her voice bitter as she began cleaning the wound with antiseptic that burned like liquid fire. "Look at what you've been reduced to. One of General Carl Gerald's elite officers, and now you're just a broken man bleeding on a warehouse floor.”“This is what happens when you serve a monster."Through the red fog of pa

"She's lying," Kane said immediately. "The prisoner was manipulating her. Trying to turn her against you. I was protecting our operation."Razor looked between her sister and her lead henchman, her expression unreadable.Then she turned her cold gaze on Captain Carlos, who was struggling to get back into a sitting position despite the fresh pain from his cracked ribs and the ongoing agony from his amputated hand."Is that true?" Razor asked him. "Were you trying to manipulate my sister?"Captain Carlos considered lying, considered trying to protect Katya from her sister's wrath. But he was too exhausted, in too much pain, and too aware that lies would probably make things worse."I was trying to convince her that this path leads to death," he said honestly. "That revenge won't bring your parents back. That there's still time to walk away before more people get hurt."Razor's expression darkened. "Walk away. You were telling her to walk away from avenging our parents' murder.""I was