Sinclair Feldman's Arc

Chapter 5 of 7

Zelda sat back down. She wiped her wrists clean on a rag and looked straight at Sinclair. "Before we move a foot, you answer me. Red Hills. The burned channel. Was it yours?" Marcus went still. Achilles set his cup down. The fire snapped between them. Sinclair did not look away. He reached into his jacket and pulled out the worn ledger he had carried since Red Hills sent him here. Water-stained pages. Rusted binding. He set it on the table next to Kira's folded note. "Every entry I made on what Red Hills put under your yard. Dates. Frequencies. Names of the men who signed off." He opened it to a marked page and turned it toward her. "We placed equipment under the dish ground six months back," he said. "A shared channel. We thought it was ours alone. It wasn't. Someone walked in beside us and we never caught it. The burn is on Red Hills' hands either way. Donovan and Kira confirmed the keys were live. That's what your runner almost died carrying." Zelda read two pages without speaking. Her finger stopped on a signature. "You wrote this knowing I'd see it." Sinclair nodded once. "I wrote it knowing you had to." She closed the ledger and kept her hand flat on the cover. "Funny what a man brings to a table when he's done hiding." Marcus exhaled. Achilles almost smiled. "You have my vote to move the meeting," Zelda said. "Not my vote on the deal. Not yet. But you sit at this table tomorrow because you told me the truth tonight." She slid the ledger back across the wood. "Keep it. I've seen what I needed." Sinclair took the ledger. The yard outside was still watched, the channel still burned, the alliance still unfinished. But the chair under him no longer wobbled. He had bought the next day with the only currency Zelda accepted. Now he had to spend it before someone out in the dark spent him first.