Because You Held the Line

Doyun had his hands inside a torn shoulder wrap when the alarm started again. He was supposed to be done with raids, done with blood, done with the kind of work that made people call him when they were already running out of time. Instead, he kept counting pulse and breath like he always had, because that was what held teams together when the floodwater came up fast. A beast-pack tag lay on his desk, and it had begun to hum. That should have been impossible. The tag had once come off a kill, yet now it reacted whenever the man who ruined Doyun's last raid came close. Doyun wants a civilian life, but the city keeps handing him the same old duty, and the people who owe him keep asking for one ...