Bram’s former commander stood where a single body could make passage look like a personal favor.
Behind him, the tunnel bent toward the inner control crew’s exit. The workers there were not the hostages and maintenance staff already counted out at the outer approach. Their last known positions remained on Tessa’s sheet, with actual departures still unacknowledged. Two pressure-board engineers were farther inside, beyond a station whose withdrawal remained physically difficult.
Bram stopped at the speaking line the local captain had approved. A settlement defender remained within sight. Kellan held the relocated exit brace behind the checked turn. Juno and Ilyan waited with the compact reader and the tested hardline.
“You could come back,” the commander said.
He did not begin with the transfer rate. He began with Bram’s family.
Their privileges could be restored. Old restrictions could be eased. Aegis could provide security no scattered arrangement of rescue crews and local councils could guarantee. Bram needed only to stop helping Eli and return to the organization that knew what his family’s safety required.
Bram listened long enough to make the offer part of the record.
The local defender held the recorder under the approved conditions. No private family location was spoken into the shared operational feed. The offer’s nature and Bram’s answer could be preserved without exposing the people used as leverage.
