Red and blue light spilled across the gravel in long, sweeping arcs, and for one frozen second, both parties simply stared at each other across the widening space and arrived, in the same instant, at the same furious, wrong conclusion.
You set this up.
The first shot came from somewhere in Mia's line. The second answered it almost immediately from Violet's side, and then the lot dissolved into chaos, gunfire cracking off metal and concrete, men scattering for cover behind cars and crates, shouting overlapping shouting until none of it carried any meaning at all, just noise and muzzle flash and the particular, ugly music of two sides who had spent years half-trusting each other, finally believing the worst.
Max watched the feed with something unreadable settling over his face.
Ruby sat very still beside him, her eyes locked on the small screen, on the chaos she had set into motion with nothing but two letters and a name.
She didn't smile. Not yet.
