The argument erupted immediately, voices overlapping in safehouse that suddenly felt suffocatingly small for conversation that would determine whether they died as fugitives or witnesses.
"You had no authority to negotiate on our behalf," Ral stated, voice tight with anger masking deeper fear. "Immunity deal means federal custody, interrogation, trial, years in prison even with reduced charges. That's not survival—that's slow execution."
"Running separately is fast execution," Maya countered. "We scatter across continents, live as strangers to ourselves, carry guilt alone until it destroys us. At least testimony means deaths accomplished something beyond revenge."
"Testimony accomplishes our imprisonment," Dmitri observed, though his tone suggested he was evaluating rather than rejectin
