Garrick argued against it for the better part of an hour, and I understood, watching him pace the length of the kitchen with barely restrained frustration, that his objection wasn't really about strategy at all — it was about a man who'd once nearly cost Ivy her life through fear-driven overcaution, now terrified of making a different, equally costly mistake in the opposite direction.
"We don't send someone we've already had to question twice for potential betrayal directly into contact with an organization that just executed a compromised asset within hours of discovery," he said, for perhaps the third time, his voice tight. "That's not caution, Ronan. That's recklessness dressed up as trust."
"I'm not asking you to trust me blindly," Priya said, steady despite the tension in the room.
