The cold barrel of Director Vance's plasma pistol pressed hard against Lyra's temple, and the entire room went dead silent. I froze in the doorway of the control booth, my hands dropping to my sides as my breath caught in my throat. Across the room, Leo stumbled back against a steel pipe, his eyes wide with shock as he stared at the woman we thought had been buried in the ruins of the Omega Station. "Drop your hands, Kiran," Director Vance said, her voice steady and venomous. Her white coat was scorched and torn at the shoulders, but her grip on the weapon did not shake by a single millimeter. "One wrong move, and your little partner loses what is left of her head." Lyra did not flinch. Her single violet eye remained fixed on the thermal generator screen across the room, ign