“?Lo conoces?” The man in the bandana held up a photograph of her superior.

  For a second, Miri almost laughed because the question felt absurd. Her superior's photo, along with every other officer’s, was displayed right there on the wall facing her desk, staring back at her under that dusty slogan about honor and loyalty. It was obvious to anyone with eyes who worked there and who held the power. Then it clicked: this wasn’t an interrogation, it was a recruitment. They weren’t asking if she knew him; they were showing her that everyone had a price, that everyone was already owned, and that she would be too.

  By the time the realization settled in her stomach, there was no going back. Miri stayed silent, her mind racing, but on the outside, she had gone completely still like a deer frozen in headlights. She didn't notice the sicario stepping closer until his shadow swallowed hers, and she felt his breath against the back of her neck—too close, too familiar, crawling over her skin like something rotten.

  He had crossed the line, and that was the trigger. Her body moved before her mind could process it; she snapped her head back, slamming the back of her skull into his face with a dull crack. As he cut short a curse and the machete shifted, she twisted and drove her entire weight into him, sending them both crashing hard to the floor.

  After that, everything went hollow. There were no thoughts, just a cold draft inside her skull as if the wind had blown her mind empty. She didn't speak or swear; she didn't even seem to breathe right as her hands found his throat, moving with a mechanical, steady precision. She squeezed with a desperate, silent force, ignoring how his face turned pale or how his eyes lost focus while his fingers clawed at her wrists. She just kept pressing until the room fell into such an unnatural silence that it forced his partner to react.

  When the second sicario burst into the office, he found his partner limp and gasping on the floor, pinned under the hands of a police officer who looked like she wasn't even in the room anymore. She didn't even notice the second shadow stepping in.