“Your argument,” I said, “is that the Apex should be less than fully alive because a dead thing can’t be leveraged. I’ve heard it before.” I looked at him steadily. “My answer is the same as it’s always been. No.”
Something moved through Adrian’s expression; not surprise, not frustration. Recalibration. The adjustment of a man who had expected resistance and was noting its exact quality for later use.
He held my gaze for a long moment.
Then, with the patience of something that had simply paused rather than finished: “Then prove it isn’t a liability.”
“How.”
“Thirty days,” Cassius said. He moved with smoothness like he had been waiting for exactly this opening; the Diplomat stepping into the gap before it could become something else.
“Three formal trials. Diplomatic, combat, cont
