He shakes the hair from his face with a low growl of frustration, eyes pressing shut, unable to look at them, unable to look at either of them. He breathes, deep and rattling, and wrestles a fucking grip on his fraying patience, crystallizing it, shaping it.
He opens his eyes.
"All right. Look. We do not have a great deal of time at our disposal so I will explain this to you. Once," he hisses, his diction poisonous. "ROMAC will very shortly be coming to the conclusion that the costs of keeping me alive far outweigh the benefits and I will cease to have value as a resource, at which point they will redirect their attention externally and devote all their resources to locating you." He stares at Asadi, the words subtly underscored with desperation, willing acceptance, willing acquiescence. Perhaps they are too similar that way. Too resolute. Too unyielding. "I have given you as much of a window as I can but they are not about to stop on account of you making yourself difficult to find. They will find you. Inevitably."
He advances, eyes blazing, expression hard and icy.
"I knew the risks. You knew them. We made that conscious decision, together, and I knew from the moment I stepped into that lab, I knew exactly what I was putting at stake. I understood the consequences. And I took every chance available to buy you time," he stabs a finger at her, unwavering, the ghosting agony of contracting fingers into an incomplete fist shivering deep within his skin, "to get the fuck out. So I am telling you."
With a massive, shuddering effort, he reins back and away, withdrawing, hand dropping to open and snap shut with distressing irregularity. To establish some tenuous composure. Semi-successfully.
"I am telling you,” he says, precise and measured and matter-of-fact, “to find a way out of the city." He meets her gaze, steady, intent. "You’re brilliant; I know you can do it. Create a workaround. Find a way out in the time it takes them to determine that I’m utterly useless to their cause. It won’t be long now."
Again he closes his eyes, closing away from her, from Daine, from the both of them, chin jerking in a movement both sharp and inadvertent.
no subject
He opens his eyes.
"All right. Look. We do not have a great deal of time at our disposal so I will explain this to you. Once," he hisses, his diction poisonous. "ROMAC will very shortly be coming to the conclusion that the costs of keeping me alive far outweigh the benefits and I will cease to have value as a resource, at which point they will redirect their attention externally and devote all their resources to locating you." He stares at Asadi, the words subtly underscored with desperation, willing acceptance, willing acquiescence. Perhaps they are too similar that way. Too resolute. Too unyielding. "I have given you as much of a window as I can but they are not about to stop on account of you making yourself difficult to find. They will find you. Inevitably."
He advances, eyes blazing, expression hard and icy.
"I knew the risks. You knew them. We made that conscious decision, together, and I knew from the moment I stepped into that lab, I knew exactly what I was putting at stake. I understood the consequences. And I took every chance available to buy you time," he stabs a finger at her, unwavering, the ghosting agony of contracting fingers into an incomplete fist shivering deep within his skin, "to get the fuck out. So I am telling you."
With a massive, shuddering effort, he reins back and away, withdrawing, hand dropping to open and snap shut with distressing irregularity. To establish some tenuous composure. Semi-successfully.
"I am telling you,” he says, precise and measured and matter-of-fact, “to find a way out of the city." He meets her gaze, steady, intent. "You’re brilliant; I know you can do it. Create a workaround. Find a way out in the time it takes them to determine that I’m utterly useless to their cause. It won’t be long now."
Again he closes his eyes, closing away from her, from Daine, from the both of them, chin jerking in a movement both sharp and inadvertent.
It won’t be long at all.