Darius's POV
The first gasp came through at 22:03.
It was soft, barely a breath, and my hand was already halfway to the headset before I registered the decision. Kate had not spoken the safeword. She had not asked for extraction. She had done nothing but inhale a little too sharply while her husband kissed her.
I pulled the headset off anyway.
Then I opened the log I had been keeping in secret since the night Damian cornered me in the parking garage.
Pacific Standard Time, 22:07.
Subject: Kate. Status: voluntary proximity to Target Ronald. Resistance indicators: none observed.
Observer: Darius Voss. Action taken: headset removed.
Protocol breach: confirmed.
Two hundred and forty three deployments. I had never closed a live channel early. Not once. In Kenya I kept the feed open for
