Chapter 10 · Blackout Ledger - Chapter 10: Below the Lock

"Choose."

The system's voice didn't ask. It stated. Cold. Flat. Like it already knew what I'd pick.

I stared at the screen floating between me and Kael. Two options, no timer this time. Just a blinking cursor waiting for me to condemn someone.

[AUTHORIZE DELETION: KAEL VOSS] [REJECT DELETION: FORFEIT ADMIN ACCESS]

Kael stood three feet away, his hand still on the external drive he'd jacked into Marcus' pod. His jaw was tight, his coat smeared with coolant fluid from when he'd yanked the emergency release. He wasn't looking at the screen. He was looking at me.

"Don't," he said.

"Don't what?"

"Don't act like you owe me."

I laughed. It came out sharp, wrong. "I don't owe you. I just don't want to kill you."

"You won't." He pulled the drive free, wiped it on his sleeve. "The system's bluffing. It needs you cooperative, not guilty."

"Yeah?" I took a step closer. The screen followed me, floating at eye level like a patient teacher. "Then why's your name on the list?"

He didn't answer right away. Behind him, Marcus' pod hummed, the delete timer frozen at 00:04. Kael had stopped it. Burned his own access doing it.