They stood with the table between them, eyeing one another with open animosity and desperation.

Lady Kantor, her misused leadership, what it was costing those who’d valiantly served, had grown out of hand. Too many people were dying, ‘necessary sacrifices’ she would say, so her growing band of handpicked revolutionaries might build bombs from garbage. Bombs they planned to strap to their bodies on the day the chosen would free the city.

As usual, Brigadier Dane’s voice was filled with disdain when she addressed the younger man. “You have never been a good Enforcer, and that is because you questioned everything. Insubordination, anything but blind obedience, was not allowed to flourish under this Dome. The wise ambitious do as they are told until they reach a position where they give the orders. Then there is no need to question, because everyone else must obey. It seems you’ve finally learned this lesson.”

And that right there was the reason it had been so easy for Shepherd to seize the city, and so easy for Lady Kantor to wrestle control of the resistance into her hands with only the Kantor name to validate her. “And what part of yourself was sacrificed to attain the rank of Brigadier?”

Brigadier Dane did something unimaginable—she lifted an eyebrow and actually smirked. It was such an unusual expression to see on the hard woman’s face, that it was vulgar. “I have seen enough of the workings of this city. I have done what I could, knowing more could only be accomplished if I rose higher. Sacrifices? You become numb to them. You hang on to an ideal, and you strive not to forget it.”

The sickness that had brewed in Corday’s belly for weeks, churned. “If you are trying to justify the things we saw on Callas’ data cube—”

“Me?” the smirk became a sneer, Brigadier Dane cutting off Corday’s quick-tempered complaint. “Boy, what you have done, your imprudence… can you even begin to grasp the consequences?”

There was a reason they came to this place, where the pair of failures might whisper in the dark, because there was no safe place to question amidst the fanatics rising to Lady Kantor’s secret cause. Corday was not afraid of Brigadier Dane’s disapproval, or in admitting he’d made a grave mistake. “Leslie Kantor...”