"If it's a tier-four, why are you pressing me so hard into the dirt that my lungs are collapsing?" Vesper whispered back, his voice strained and quiet as the high-pitched mechanical whir grew deafeningly loud just outside their narrow opening.Cassian didn't loosen her grip. Her armored fingers stayed locked around his wrist like a vice, her other hand pinning him flat against the grey, brittle floor of the hollow redwood. "Because tier-four models don't rely on thermals, Vesper. They rely on movement algorithms and acoustic sweeps. If you twitch another millimeter, the optical feed will register the displacement of dust, and we'll have a dozen regional enforcers kicking down this trunk before you can draw your crowbar.""Point taken," Vesper muttered, his cheek pressed firmly against the cold, stone-like wood. Outside, the rhythmic hum of the drone's rotors suddenly hitched. A sharp, metallic clack echoed through the clearing, followed by an erratic stutter in the engine's whine. "Di