Kael's POV
The call rings out.
Once. Twice. A third time. Then the soft click of the line falling into silence. No voicemail. No short reply. Nothing.
I try again. The same empty return.
Something in my chest draws tight and cold. Akira always answers. Even when he is exhausted. Even when he is already moving. He answers, or he sends the single word that means later. There is only silence.
The silence sits wrong in a way that makes the air in the office feel thinner than it should. I am on my feet before the second attempt fully ends.
The tracking protocol is not official. It is something I built quietly in the weeks after he told me about the missions, after I understood that the dangers around him did not always travel through ordinary channels.
