Chapter 12 · The Override

"I'm fine, buddy." Levi's mouth was two inches from the glass, breath fogging it white. "Go sit with Marisol. I'll be right out."

He was lying. Danny's face was still wrecked on the other side, palm flat on the pane like he could push through it, and Levi's voice had gone soft in a way I'd never heard out of him — not once, not across three hearings and two suspensions.

My hand was still on the panel. Still on the wound. I didn't move it.

"Don't," I said.

He didn't turn his head. "Don't what."

"Don't lie to the kid so you can keep lying to me in a minute." I pressed down, just enough, and felt him flinch through his ribs, bone-on-bone where his shoulder blade caught mine on the narrow gurney. "Tell him the door's dead. Tell him why. Or I knock on that glass and tell him myself."

That got him. His head snapped around, and for one second the commissioner face was gone completely —