Chapter 18 · Blackout Ledger - Chapter 18: The Kill Order Is Fake

"You helped erase my file."

Kael didn't move. His coat was still open from where I'd yanked the collar back, and the faint glow of his badge pulsed under his shirt. He didn't deny it.

"Say something," I said.

"Yes."

I shoved him back against the wall. The gun was already in my hand. I didn't remember pulling it. My wrist ached where the chip sat under the skin, hot and tight, like it was listening.

"When?"

"Two years ago," Kael said. His voice was flat. No excuse in it. "You were flagged for extraction. I was the one who signed off."

My throat closed up. The sublevel air tasted like rust and old smoke. The emergency lights overhead buzzed, casting everything in sick yellow. Somewhere down the corridor, something dripped.

"Extraction," I said. "That what you call it when you disappear someone?"

"That's what the order called it."

"And you just followed orders."

"I did."

I pressed the muzzle under his jaw. His pulse jumped against the barrel. I felt it through the metal, fast and hard.

"Why?"

"Because I believed the file," Kael said. "It said you were a runner for a black-market syndicate.