Chapter 3

"As long as you can do all that, I'll show mercy and allow you to retreat. How about it?"

"This is murder! He's killing us by proxy!"

Deputy Captain Herrera screamed in fury beside me.

"Captain Lewis! He never intended to let us live! He's forcing you—"

I raised a hand, stopping her.

How could I not understand?

Noah knew me too well.

Better than anyone, he understood what honor and dignity meant to me—what they meant to Ysabelle Lewis.

What he wanted was to crush me completely, to grind into the dirt everything I had spent my life defending—right in front of my team, in front of the people I had sworn to protect, in front of every record that might remain.

Five years ago, before countless witnesses, I had thrown his pride and expectations onto the floor of our wedding hall.

Now, standing at the edge of life and death, he intended to collect that debt a hundredfold.

"Ysabelle, have you thought it through?"

Noah's voice cut into the channel again.

"Let me guess... how long can your ammunition last? Three minutes? Or maybe just the next second?"

Rage overflowed, smashing the last barriers of reason. I roared into the mic, "Noah! Do you know what you're doing right now?! This is murder! The courts will be waiting for you!"

In response came a faint, utterly contemptuous chuckle.

"That's right. But only if... someone lives to come back and accuse me."

In that instant, an icy chill seized my heart.

I stood frozen, fully grasping the implication behind his words.

He was absolutely certain that this unit of mine would never make it out of this hell alive.

"Captain Lewis, don't listen to him! We can contact the top command and bypass him!" Charlie said urgently.

I slowly shook my head as a crushing wave of exhaustion washed over me.

"No. This mission is top secret. He's the direct commander. Without a supreme-level order, our distress signals won't even reach the outside."

"And along the retreat route, this is the only terrain where we can mount any kind of resistance. If we withdraw without support, we'll become sitting ducks in the open."

"He calculated everything."

Charlie's voice broke, choked with despair. "Then... then there's really no other way? We can only..."

I reached into my pocket and pulled out my last crumpled cigarette, lighting it with the lingering sparks of gunfire.

The weak flame flickered in the cold night, eerily reminiscent of that hurried night outside the airport five years ago.

Back then, I had lit a cigarette the same way, carrying my critically ill, unconscious mother on my back, turning to face his tear-streaked expression.

"Ysabelle—if you leave today, I'll never forgive you for the rest of my life!"

His plea still rang in my ears.

I had thought that the ashes of our three-year relationship were the full price I'd paid for my choice.

I never imagined that the hatred he had nursed for five years would be settled like this—wagering the lives of more than a hundred strangers who had nothing to do with me.

"Captain! A civilian has been hit in the arm by a stray bullet—severe bleeding! They need immediate evacuation!"

The medic's tearful voice tore through the taut silence once more.

That sound became the final straw, crushing every remaining calculation.

I took a deep drag on the cigarette. The last light in my eyes went out.

"Charlie."

"Take over command. Hold for three minutes. I'll bring you all home."

Charlie grabbed my arm suddenly, her nails biting into my armor.

"Captain..."