You sure you’re cleared to be breathing this air?

The first time, Aria kept walking. The second time, she wrote down the time. The third time, she wrote down the witness.

Harlow thought she was scared because she didn’t answer him. That was his mistake. Silence doesn’t always mean surrender. Sometimes it means the recorder is already running.

On the morning everything broke open, Aria had known something was wrong before Harlow ever touched her.

The corridor outside the shower room was too empty. The training-block schedule had been changed by hand. The duty clerk who normally sat near the locker-room hallway had been sent on a pointless errand.

And Harlow looked far too pleased with himself.