Blaze stood in the corridor with his arms folded and said nothing for a long time.
"Whoever did this knew the building's security rotation," he said finally. "They knew the camera blind spots. They knew exactly how long they had and exactly where to go." He turned to look at Nerion. "This was not opportunistic. This was planned well in advance by someone with significant resources and intelligence access.
"The compound they used on the test subject came from Orin," Nerion said. "He's the only one with clearance to the original files. Someone got to him — threatened him or bought him or both — and used him to get what they needed. Once Cael went into crisis and drew attention to the lab, Orin became a liability."
"And liabilities get handled," Blaze said. His voice was flat, the particul
