Chapter 14 · Blackout Ledger - Chapter 14: The Voice in Her Head

"That's not my voice."

Kael's hand closed around my wrist before I could yank the chip interface off. His grip was careful. Too careful.

"Let go," I said.

"Listen first."

"I said let go."

He did. Stepped back half a pace, hands up like I was the one holding the gun. Which I wasn't. Not yet.

The audio looped in my skull. A kid's voice. High and flat and bored, the way you sound when you've said the same thing twelve times and nobody's listening. *Terminate subject sixteen. Confirm disposal. Resume standard rates.*

It sounded like me. Maybe. If I'd been ten years old and already tired of the world.

"I don't remember that," I said.

Kael's eyes didn't leave mine. "The system says you do."

"The system's lying."

"Is it?"

I pulled the pistol off my belt and leveled it at his chest. My hand didn't shake. It should have. "You think I killed people when I was a kid?"

"I think someone made you forget."

"Convenient."

"Raina."

"Shut up." I thumbed the safety off. The click was loud in the narrow clinic hall.