Punny felt too many things at once. None of them resolved into action.

  Silence settled over the auditorium like a held breath. Melody stood rigid, her arm extended, the gun steady despite the faint tremor in her wrist. Erik sat across from her, hands open, posture relaxed in a way that felt intentional rather than sincere. The council members hovered in a loose semicircle, caught between shock and the instinct to move.

  Punny replayed the seconds leading up to this moment and found no version of events where this outcome existed. Melody had always been cautious. Careful. She planned, she anticipated, she avoided irreversible acts. And yet here they were. The gun was real. The consequences would be real. The ripples would not stop at the settlement’s edge.

  “Well,” Erik said finally, his voice calm enough to feel unnatural, “this is interesting.”

  “Yes,” Melody replied. Her voice did not rise, but it wavered slightly. “It is. And I can’t let you interfere with our plans to get Vengeful.”

  Erik studied her with something close to pity. “You have no idea what you’ve just done.”

  “So you say,” Melody answered. “If you are as important as you think you are, then perhaps this forces a new understanding.”

  “You’ve doomed everyone,” Erik said. Not angrily. Not loudly. As a statement of fact.

  “I don’t believe you,” Melody said. She gestured toward the corner. “Sit. Over there.”

  Erik glanced at the council, then at Punny, then back at Melody. He pulled a chair from the table and walked to the corner without resistance. He sat, crossing his legs, his expression unreadable.

  The room exhaled.

  Punny shook himself out of paralysis and turned on Melody. “What are you doing?”

  “I don’t know,” she said, and the admission surprised him more than the gun. Her hand trembled now, unmistakably.

  The council surged forward, questions overlapping, voices sharp with disbelief. Punny stepped in, gently but firmly taking the gun from Melody’s hand.

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  “Enough,” he said, raising his voice. “What’s done is done. We can’t undo it. We need to decide what happens next.”

  The room quieted. Not because anyone agreed—but because no one had a better answer.

  Just when Punny thought the situation had stabilized, Rocky swore softly at his phone.

  “They’re moving two people to the recycler tomorrow,” he said. “No names listed. But Vengeful was taken to Police HQ.”

  The words landed hard.

  Punny’s mind shifted gears. “That helps,” he said slowly. “It gives us a clock. We rescue Vengeful tomorrow morning.”

  “And then?” Les asked.

  “Then we negotiate.”

  “With who?” Les pressed. “Do you know how to contact anyone in the city?”

  Punny turned his head slightly. “He does.”

  Erik smiled thinly. “If you think I’m going to help you, you’re mistaken.”

  “That doesn’t help your position,” Melody said.

  “I’m not trying to improve my position,” Erik replied. “My fate is already decided. So is yours.”

  Rocky exhaled. “We’re not killing him.”

  No one disagreed.

  “And we can’t keep him here,” Rocky continued. “So why not take him back to the city? We’re going there anyway.”

  Melody frowned. “Just like that?”

  “It’s the least bad option,” Rocky said. “We keep him isolated. Drop him off. Get Vengeful back.”

  Punny nodded. “We plan now. Melody, you and I handle the rescue. Rocky organizes logistics. Les and Pearl watch him.”

  Pearl had been silent. Watching.

  As Melody left to notify the tunnel team, Punny felt the weight of what they were not addressing. “Is there anywhere else we can go?” he asked quietly. “If Erik’s right, staying put may be suicide.”

  Pearl turned to Erik. “You said we had to stop because we were creating too much disruption.”

  “Yes.”

  “You clearly have the capacity to deal with us.”

  “That’s true.”

  “So you’re worried about instability,” Pearl said. “About what happens if this spreads.”

  Erik shrugged. “Above my pay grade.”

  Pearl nodded as if satisfied. “Then you’ll take a message back.”

  Erik’s eyes narrowed. “Will I.”

  “Yes,” Pearl continued calmly. “Tell them we’re rescuing Vengeful. Tell them any attempt to interfere will be met with disruption. Systemic disruption.”

  “That’s a bluff.”

  “Is it?” Pearl asked. “You know we have access. You don’t know the limits.”

  Erik hesitated. It was brief. It was enough.

  “You will convey the message,” Pearl said. “You will emphasize that if we burn, the fire spreads.”

  Erik studied him for a long moment. “I’ll tell them.”

  Pearl turned away.

  As dawn arrived, the plan solidified. Familiar. Clean. Efficient. Too efficient for what it represented.

  When the bus finally arrived, Punny felt his nerves break through discipline. He raised the gun, knocked once, then forced his way inside.

  “Shut up,” he told the driver.

  He looked down the aisle.

  There was no Vengeful.

  Only Ed and Rex.

  “Oh shit,” Melody said.

  And Punny knew—before anyone spoke—that everything had just changed again.