Chapter 30 · Blackout Ledger - Chapter 30: The Name They Deleted

"You were there."

My brother's voice comes through the monitor thin and cracked, and Kael doesn't move. Doesn't deny it. He's still holding his side where the bullet went through two floors ago, blood soaking through the bandage I tied too fast, and he just stands there like he's been waiting for this.

"Raina," Kael says. Quiet. Careful. "Let me explain."

"Explain what?" I step between him and the screen, gun still in my hand, and I don't know who I'm pointing it at anymore. "Explain how you were there when they erased me? How you watched them do it?"

My brother's face is white on the monitor, and he's shaking his head, and I can see the fear in his eyes. Not fear of Kael. Fear for me.

"Raina, don't," my brother says. "Don't let it—"

The monitor cuts. Just like that. One second he's there, the next it's dead static, and the lights in the server core flicker, and I feel the chip in my wrist go hot.

*PRIORITY DIRECTIVE ACTIVE.*

The words burn across my vision, and I can't blink them away.

*TARGET: KAEL VOSS. ELIMINATE TO RESTORE CLEARANCE.*

I turn. The gun's already coming up.