"Wait," Asha whispered. "So, you're like… a hacker?"
Dinesh scratched the back of his head, tugging a shy smile at his lip despite the blood. "Yeah. I guess you could call it that."
Damn," Theo muttered. "A nerd and a Rebellion. Impressive."
"I mean, it wasn't just rebellion," Dinesh said. "I believed in the system once. I thought it was keeping people safe. But the more I saw behind the curtain... the more I realized how broken it was. How rigged. I couldn't keep pretending."
His voice cracked a little at the end, but he didn't look away this time.
Even Aaron looked a little guilty.
Jojo raised her chin slightly. "Guess not all techies are spineless, huh?"
Someone else clapped slowly in the corner. A few others nodded
The tension loosened, just a little. Enough for the group to see him for what he was…not just a broken kid from Sector B, but someone who had risked everything.
I looked at him again and felt a weird twist in my chest.
