Chapter 8 · Blackout Ledger - Chapter 8: The Only One Left

"Choose."

The voice came through the wall speaker, cold and mechanical. Not Kael's handler. Someone higher.

I stared at the screen in front of me. Two feeds, side by side. On the left, a file labeled MASSACRE REVISION—FULL TESTIMONY. On the right, a live map with a single pulsing dot. My brother's location.

"One download," the voice said. "You take the file, the map erases. You take the map, the file corrupts in thirty seconds. Choose."

Kael was on his feet behind me, his shoulder pressed against the blast door we'd sealed five minutes ago. Something heavy slammed into it from the other side. His own people. The ones who'd put a kill order on him the second he'd stopped playing clean.

"Raina," he said. Low. Tight. "Don't."

"Don't what?" I didn't look at him. My hand hovered over the screen. "Don't pick my brother? Don't care that he's got maybe six hours of oxygen left wherever the hell they stashed him?"

"They're lying."

"You don't know that."

"I know them." His voice cracked, just barely. "They want you to pick him. They want you to walk away from the file. That's the whole point."

Another slam. The door groaned.