Chapter 16 #2
"I think the flaws I found could be real.
Or they could be decoys. Honeypots designed to look like weaknesses so that anyone trying to exploit them walks right into a detection grid.
" Gideon stopped pacing and spread his palms flat on the desk.
"I don't know which ones are real, and which ones are bait.
And I'm about to lead this team into a hub, forty minutes from Hyperion, based on assumptions I can't verify. "
Darwin crossed the room and rested his hand on Gideon's shoulder. The weight of it was steady. "Slow down," Darwin said. "Breathe."
"I am breathing."
"You're not. You're talking fast and pacing in circles.
That's not sucking in air, that’s panic.
" Darwin leaned in, catching Gideon’s gaze.
"Finch, Ramsey, and now Isaac—they've been one step ahead of us from the beginning.
Every move we've made, they've anticipated.
Every operation has come with a cost." His grip tightened slightly.
"But we're still here. We're not dead. We're not locked out. And we're not giving up."
"I know that."
"Then act like you know it." Darwin released his shoulder and leaned against the desk beside him. "If Isaac comes at you, this team is as prepared as they can possibly be. They've been in firefights with enhanced soldiers, and they're still standing."
"That's not what I'm worried about."
"You're worried you're going to get someone killed because you missed something in the code.
You're worried that the one variable you didn't account for is the one that gets Zadie hurt.
" Darwin folded his arms. "I know, because I've been standing exactly where you are.
I watched this team get ambushed because I didn't see what was right in front of me.
I carry that every day. But carrying it didn't stop me from calling Gus.
It didn't stop me from sending Zadie to find you. "
Gideon stared at the network map on the wall. SYN-7 blinked in its valley.
"Focus on your part of the mission," Darwin said. "On what you know and what you can do. Work with Zadie on that, and let everyone else do what they're good at. That's how this team operates. Everyone has a strength, but no one is an island."
Gideon let out a long breath and dragged his hand over his face. The stubble was rougher than he liked, and he hadn't slept enough, and his eyes still burned from five hours of staring at ORACLE's architecture.
"I never quite fit in with the military," he said.
"My unit was full of people like me—engineers, systems guys, the kind of people who'd rather talk to a screen than a room.
But it never felt like a unit. Not really.
We did our jobs and went home and that was it.
" He dropped his hand. "Hyperion was different but not necessarily better.
Everyone there was performing for someone.
I could only take so much of it before I'd close my office door and disappear into the work. "
Darwin listened. He didn't interrupt. He just stood there with his arms folded and gave Gideon the same patient attention he'd given him across conference tables and lab benches for seven years.
"This bunker is different." Gideon's voice caught unexpectedly. "These people, they're not colleagues. They're not teammates in the way the military defines it. They're—" He shook his head. "It's like coming home. I didn't know what that felt like until I walked through that door."
Darwin's mouth curved into a small, warm smile.
"And Zadie." Gideon rubbed the back of his neck. "I care about her more than I've ever cared about anyone. Which makes all of this harder because now I've got something to lose that actually matters."
"That's not a weakness, Gideon. That's the whole point."
"It doesn't feel like it when I'm running scenarios in my head at three in the morning."
"It never does." Darwin straightened and put his hand on Gideon's shoulder again. "We're family. And family takes care of one another. Trust that. We’re going to take Finch down. It's just going to take time."
Gideon looked at the man who'd recruited him out of a career he'd outgrown, who'd left Post-it notes on his monitor, who'd stood in a hallway the day Gideon was fired and hadn't known what to say. The man who'd run for his life and built something from the wreckage that looked a lot like hope.
"Thanks."
"Anytime." Darwin dropped his hand and headed for the door. He stopped at the threshold and turned back. "One more thing."
"Yeah?"
"Bring her home safe. Bring all of them home safe. But especially her. I'd like to see what happens when you two aren't running for your lives." He disappeared down the corridor before Gideon could respond.
Gideon stood alone in the comms room. The network map blinked on the wall. The portable drive sat on the desk, loaded and waiting. In less than an hour, they'd be in the vehicles heading for a valley forty minutes from the place that had ended his old life.