The man didn't reply, but his shoulders were tense, his eyes locked on the ground as if looking at her would make the pain worse.
"I wasn't building a weapon. I was building a name. I wanted to prove I was worth the space I took up a job in a lab full of people who saw me as too green, too hopeful. I worked hard. I didn't ask questions when I should've. I trusted the wrong people."
Her voice caught there, just for a second. But she pushed through it.
"The project got taken from me. Stripped down. Changed into something I didn't recognize. I tried to get answers, but doors started closing. People stopped taking my calls. And then the silence turned into chaos. I'd already gotten the fame I was looking for so I decided to keep quiet"
She crouched slowly so she could look him in the eye.
