Chapter 27 · The Man Who Pulled the Trigger

Kade's in the chair when the lab door blows open.

Mara's halfway across the room, one hand still on the transfer console, when Silas Grave walks in like he owns the air. Two mercs flank him. Clean suits. Clean guns. The kind that don't miss.

"Step back from the console, Dr. Vey." His voice is calm. Too calm. Like he's asking her to pass the salt.

She doesn't move. Her brother's still locked in the second cage, eyes wide, breath fogging the glass. Kade's strapped down in the sync chair, wires running from his chest to the server rack behind him. The countdown on his core ticks in her peripheral vision. Forty-one minutes.

"I said step back."

Mara's hand hovers over the emergency stop. One button. She could cut the sync, fry the core, and Kade would be dead in under a minute. Or she could let Silas take him. Take the core. Take whatever the hell Mom locked inside it.

"You don't want to do that," Silas says. He's looking at her hand. "You kill him, your brother doesn't walk out of here."

"Funny." Her voice comes out steadier than she feels.