The room was spinning, and I felt like death, but I wasn’t dead. That was a win. “A little lightheaded and weak, but still breathing.” I sighed. “What now?”

“That’s up to you. As I said, I can call your dad, but we’ll be at war within a week. Are you ready for that?”

“So you call him and a war starts and I put millions of lives at risk?”

“Tens of billions, and that’s only counting humans. I don’t know exact numbers on the Aunare and their allies.”

I swallowed. “That’s a lot of lives to put on my shoulders.”

“I know.”

“But the war is coming anyway?”

“I can’t say anything either way because I don’t know. I’ve been friends with Declan for a long time and he’s managed to avoid it so far. Every time things get tense, he and Lorne come up with a plan, but that’s only going to work for so long. It’ll eventually either be war or things will finally fizzle out.”

That made this so much worse. How was I supposed to put myself and my survival ahead of so many others?

“You’re going to get two days off,” Ahiga said after a while. “I’m going to put in for seven—standard for a work-related injury—but they’re going to give two.”

“That’s better than nothing,” Audrey said. “If they want her dead, they could refuse it.”

“They won’t,” Ahiga said quickly. “I have a feeling they want her tortured over and over. They’re going to want to give her the reprieve so that the torture will be that much more acute. They want her broken. They want her destroyed. The suit is recorded, right?”

Tyler nodded. “From the time the helmet closes until it’s opened.”

This was so messed up. “SpaceTech will send it to my dad. Make him act out first.”

“That’s my guess,” Ahiga said. “When SpaceTech has all their ducks lined up—whatever they are—they’ll release it.”

Perfect. “So I need out of here before then, so what—”

“Yes, but we’re in a bit of a—”

“Shit,” Tyler said.

Ahiga turned to him. “What?”

“The ducks are lining up.” His face grew pale as he stared off at nothing for a minute.

I sat taller on the bed. “What do you mean?”