I don't know how long I'm there.
Knees on the deck of the rear car. Eyes on the heart pulsing in the corner of my HUD. The rest of the world cut out, like someone pulled the plug on everything that isn't that small symbol next to her name.
"Dryden…" Oliver. His voice arrives muffled, as if from underwater. "Dryden, we have to move."
I don't move.
"Boss… please."
I keep watching the heart.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump.
Steady.
Alive.
Rhayne sits down beside me. Doesn't speak. Doesn't touch. Just sits. After a while I feel her hand on my shoulder. The weight is so light I almost don't register it.
She's crying. Quietly. I know because I see the reflection of her tears on the polished metal of the floor. She doesn't wipe them. She just lets them fall.
What's left of the train has stopped. The rails ended somewhere I didn't see. Through the escape area: trees, dense canopy, green light filtering down.
The space next to me is empty.
