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Then another.

The safehouse changed around me without physically changing at all.

The quiet that had seemed sterile now felt exposed. The sealed doors no longer felt protective. The mountain above us stopped feeling like cover and started feeling like weight.

“What does pinged mean?”

“Someone queried the old location beacon.”

“Can they find us?”

“If they receive a response.”

“Did they?”

“No.”

I exhaled.

He looked at me. “But the query should not exist.”

That took the relief right back.

“So what now?”

His gaze moved to the screen where his dead record had been.

Then to me.

For the first time since I met him, Veyr looked like a man whose map had stopped matching the ground.

“We leave.”

I grabbed my bag. “Where?”

He moved toward the door.

“Where to this time?” I called after him.

I followed.

He glanced back at me.

“I do not know.”

That frightened me more than anything else he had said.

CHAPTER NINE

Veyr

The safehouse had been compromised. Not breached. Not yet. There was a difference.

I moved through the equipment room, taking only what could not be replaced easily. Two charge cells, a medical kit, the portable terminal, three nutrient packs, and water purification tabs. Enough to keep us moving without slowing us down.

Talia stood in the doorway with her bag against one hip, watching me with the same intent concentration she had used on the records.

“You have an alarming amount of practice abandoning places.”