Chapter 28 · Everybody's a Target

Ryan had the kill switch in his hand. Admin key. Black plastic disk the size of a coin, smooth except for the port pins on one side.

Natasha was still standing there with her palms up. Gun on the floor between them. Her face looked tired. Older than it had six hours ago.

"You jack that in," she said, "everything running your protocol gets bricked. Every copy. Every iteration. The whole network."

"Good."

"Including you."

Ryan turned the disk over. There was a serial stamp on the back. Corporate issue. Verner Solutions property tag still readable under the scuff marks.

"You stole this from your own company," he said.

"I made it. They don't know it exists." She took a half-step forward and stopped when he looked up. "Ryan, listen. That thing's a scorched-earth option. It doesn't discriminate. You plug it into your rig and trigger the wipe, your neural port's going to fry along with everything else."

"So I die clean."

"You die *gone*. No backup. No recovery. Just gone."

He looked at the disk again. His hand was steady. That surprised him. He'd expected shakes.