Riven's Pov
The alarm changed the math.
Every plan had a timeline built into it. The timeline was always optimistic because you built plans in calm and ran them in chaos. The alarm meant the gap between the plan and the reality had just become much smaller and was closing fast.
I made the decisions in under ten seconds.
"Two with me," I said, tilting my head toward the Northesk wolves behind us. One of them, Maren, the one with facility infiltration experience, stepped forward. The other, Cord, took position facing back down the corridor without being told, the trained readiness of someone who understood that someone needed to cover the rear and the right person did it without waiting to be assigned.
"Hold this corridor," I said. "Anyone comes through that doesn't come from us, make n
