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I nod back

After a few long seconds that feel more like minutes, I break the silence with the inevitable

"Did you tell Victor the truth? You know he’ll find out, right?"

"Yeah, I know," he says "But I did tell him the truth There’sto uess Victor just wasn’t ready to hear it"

"Why did you crack at all?" I ask "I uys like you were trained not to break, not even to save the life of so to us about who you are; the fact that you broke in itself is a serious flaw in your character, Dorian You gave up your identity not only to us, but to an innocent civilian That tells us you’d be willing to give us up under the right circumstances"

Dorian shakes his head

"I know it looks that way," he says, "but like I told Victor, I was eventually going to tell hiiven authorization I just had to do it sooner than expected"

"And what if," I say, "you were never given that authorization? Would you have admitted it?"

He sighs

"If I said no, would you believe me?" It wasn’t really a question

"What about Tessa?" I point out "It seemed easy for you to tell her"

"Yeah, well that’s a different kind of weakness," he adivable like being a traitor Look, I know I’ to die in here; it’s a hazard in this line of work I accept it and I’m not afraid of it, but I don’t want to die a traitor"

After a brief moment of pause I say, "I wish I could say I don’t think you’re a traitor, but what you did…I don’t know, it’s hard forelse…but as a person and a friend, I think you’re genuine"

"Thanks"

He pauses and asks, "Is she dead?"

"I’ to kill her soon"

"Yeah, well put a bullet in that bitch’s shoulders before you kill her," he snaps "Make it all drahs at his own joke but winces and a hissing noise pushes through his lips as he sucks in a breath sharply in response to more pain

I smile and watch his eyes fall away froonna be all right?" he asks

"Yeah, she was fine when James picked her up, just like everyone else"

"This has been a really fucked up forty-eight hours," he says "I guess you’re not at liberty to tellconfession she wanted, and from which one of us?"

I shake my head "Sorry"

He nods