The academy felt different after our meeting with Drayke.
Not louder or more crowded just watched. Security drones hovered at the edges of corridors now, and even the air seemed to hum with surveillance.
I tried to pretend I was just another student again, but the system had other plans.
Zero progress. The kind of reminder that never stopped blinking in the corner of my vision.
Kira joined me in the library that morning, pretending to study a stack of tactical manuals. She spoke without looking up. “Any new signals?”
“Nothing concrete,” I said, flipping a page I hadn’t read. “But there’s static in the ranking database profiles flickering in and out. It’s like the system can’t decide if certain students exist.”
“That sounds like a good place to start.” She leaned closer. “Names?”
I h
